HDN ReBirth: Generation of True Gods
by Zoarak13
Summary: Tetsuya Yuugita, a 'normal' 16 year old high school boy, looking for some sort of change to brighten up his otherwise dull life. However, he didn't expect that change to come from a game console. That same game console would be the key to the place that would give him the "excitement" he needed, a world known as Gamindustri! (You'll see a lot of OCs!) -Follows Re;Birth 2 storyline-
1. Prologue

**Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth: Generation of True Gods**

 **Prologue**

 **AN: Hey! Zoarak here! I kinda messed up but I'll edit it again! This is the very first chapter so I'll have chapter 1 in a few days or tomorrow depending the situation. However, a special guest will come in the next chapter!**

* * *

 **Tetsuya Yuugita, a 'normal' 16 year old high school boy, looking for some sort of change to brighten up his otherwise dull life. However, he didn't expect that change to come from a game console. That same game console would be the key to the place that would give him the "excitement" he needed, a world known as Gamindustri! His dull life changes but his past hasn't. Watch as he watches Gamindustri through conflicts!**

* * *

Tetsuya went through his usual, if monotonous, routine. During the day, it was wake up in the morning, get dressed, eat breakfast, and go to school. After that, go home, sleep or play video games, brush your teeth again, and go to sleep. But, on that certain day, there was one element that threw his routine off its schedule: a simple game console.

Tetsuya was currently walking back home, with his school bag slung over his right shoulder.

A sigh escaped Tetsuya's mouth as he pondered the boredom of anything and everything related to school. To him, he didn't think that school would be, well, dull. Sometimes, he seriously considered dropping out of school just so that he wouldn't face the boredom whenever he went there. Once, he tried to convince his mother about it, but all she said was:

"If you drop out, then how will you find a decent job to work at? Any financial problems that come from this will be on your head not mine. I'm not going to take care of you forever after all." Tetsuya never broached this topic with her after that. Of course, he needed to get a high school diploma if he wanted to get a decent, full-time job.

….But what if he didn't need one? Wait, what was he thinking? Of course he needed a high school diploma at least to get some decent work, but at times he felt that there had to be a job that he could excel at.

However, his train of thought was interrupted by a strange object he hadn't seen before. No, it wasn't a rare animal, human, car, headphones, or a flying penguin. But a game console, sitting innocently in the middle of the sidewalk.

He bent down, bag still slung on his shoulder, to get a closer look at the strange console. It had a shape of a cross, or is it a gamepad? In the middle, another shape of a cross was there (he noticed that the inside had four discs). In the middle of the cross, it had a symbol 'N' on it, and below that there were small letters that spelled out a name: 'NEPTUNE'.

After his initial observations, Tetsuya picked it up and once more began to look at the console from every angle. He finally finished, though his observations left him blinking in a stupid and blank way.

"Well, I don't think the people I know ever have this 'thing.'" He looked around to see if anyone might have left the game console on the sidewalk. After making sure that there was no one, Tetsuya ran back home like a roadrunner while clutching onto the game console.

 **-Yuugita Residence-**

"Hmm..." Tetsuya, sitting crossed-legged on the ground, looked at the console with a blank stare. What should he do? He looked all over the game console and gleaned that the power button was the one with the 'N' symbol on it. Curiously, he slowly brought his index finger to the button. When his finger was on it, he gave a slight push. He waited for seconds until…

*Sheeeeeeen*

Suddenly, the console began to glow with such intense light. He immediately closed his eyes, though he began to feel his feet lift off from the floor.

"Wha-What the hell is this!" He screamed as he suddenly felt himself being sucked into the light. "Waaaahhhhhh!" As he screamed, he felt himself losing consciousness. Before he finally slipped into unconsciousness, he truly wondered if he was dreaming or not about what was happening to him now.

* * *

It wasn't hard to think of a prologue. But this prologue is pretty short, don't worry the first chapter will have lots of words! See ya viewers in the next chapter!

Bye!


	2. Learning Basics and New People

**Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth: Generation of True Gods**

 **Chapter 1: Learning Basics and New People**

 **AN: Wow! It actually took longer than I thought. But it was thanks to the person who helped me, right, editor!**

 **EN: -Editor uses laser-beams on Author-**

 **AN: Ouch! What the heck are you doing to the Author!**

 **EN: Do you know how many grammar mistakes and unnecessary stuff I had to remove and correct in your initial draft? It's like every page, you dummy!**

 **AN: Hey! Do not call the Author a dummy.**

 **EN: (Makes an annoyed face) Hmph. You better not leave your readers waiting too long, you dummy author. As for me, I'm going to go de-stress. Better not forget the disclaimer, alright? (Almost leaves)**

 **AN: Wait! We need to say the disclaimer together!**

 **EN: (sigh) Fine.**

 **AN and EN: Zoarak13 does not own Hyperdimension Neptunia or characters present in that franchise except for the OCs.**

 **EN: Alright, I'm going to leave now. Better work on your author skills, ok? (Finally leaves)**

 **AN: Fine. I hope you guys enjoy this long chapter. I wanted to make the prologue short because I felt there as no adding more to it since Tetsuya was transported by the game console. Don't worry I'll probably add the disclaimer with no one saying it or probably at some chapters. See ya! (Leaves too)**

* * *

 **-?-**

When his consciousness returned, Tetsuya found himself lying on his back. He rubbed his head and gave a wince as pain shot through it.

"Ow!" He only slightly moaned; the pain wasn't too severe at the very least. After the pain passed, he started looking around, but his surroundings were all pitch black, so dark to the point that he couldn't see one centimeter in front of him. Strangely enough, he could still see himself despite the overwhelming darkness.

"I wonder… did that console send me here?" When saying that to himself, he sat crossed-legged again and cupped his chin, thinking.

He had a lot of questions, questions that needed answers **.** Why was that game console just sitting there in the sidewalk all by itself? What was with its strange appearance? And… why did it bring him here to this dark place?

 **(Are you awake?)**

A calm and gentle voice asked, slightly shocking Tetsuya who didn't expect anyone to be there besides him. "Who's there?" He finally stood up on his two legs, looking around for the voice.

 **(Please do not be cautious, I do not mean harm.)** The voice calmly stated to him. He calmed down, sighing. He wondered if he was dreaming again, though in a way, this felt too real to be an actual dream.

"Um… can I ask a question?"

 **(Yes?)**

"Am I dreaming?"

 **(I am sorry, this might sound like a joke to you, but this is reality, Tetsuya-san.)** He blinked in surprise. How did this person know his name? Hearing his name, he came to the conclusion that he really wasn't dreaming.

"Hey, how do you know my name, ummm-"

 **(My name is Histoire.)** 'What an unusual name to have, perhaps she was foreign' he had thought.

"Histoire, is there a reason why you know my name?"

 **(Please, this is a request for me. Can you… save Gamindustri?)** She just ignored my question, didn't she? Tetsuya thought, a bit offended. Though, he couldn't help but notice the almost desperate tone to her voice, even though she still sounds relatively calm.

"H-Huh? What are you talking about? You're not making sense here." Save Gamindustri? What is that place, a foreign country? He had many questions in his head, swirling around like a tornado. **(Please you are the only person I could count on. Save Gamindustri and the CPUs.)** This time, Tetsuya detected a genuine sadness in her voice as she pleaded her request. He only clenched his fists.

He finally looked up, despite seeing nothing but black. "…Fine, I will do it."

 **(Thank you.)** The calm voice sounded happy. (Right now, you are still unconscious, but safe for the time being. Don't worry, IF-san, Compa-san, and Nepgear-san had already reached your general location.)

Those three names… are they the ones that have the answers he's looking for?

"So… will I wake up now?"

 **(Yes, in a few seconds.)** As he heard that, he sighed once more as he felt himself laying on his back again. He wondered what was in store for him.

...

 **-?-**

"Mmmhh" his eyes opened, only to see…purple? As his vision began to clear, he saw the purple color in better clarity. It was light purple. No, not just that, they were eyes. The eyes were suddenly gone as they moved out of his vision. "Um... ah... I'm sorry…"

He heard a girl's voice. He moved up till he was in a sitting position. Right now, he was in a bed, though it looked like it belonged to a girl more than anything. He looked around the room till his eyes locked onto a girl. A cute girl.

The girl was fair-skinned, with long lilac-purple hair that reached to her waist with a few loose strands curling down her face. The girl's outfit consisted of a white jacket-dress that was edged in purple with purple pockets and buttons. Around her neck was a white choker wrapped in a pale yellow ribbon with an "N" symbol in the center of it. A small, white belt-like purse was wrapped around her right thigh. She also wore pink- and white-striped socks with white and purple shoes. To complete the ensemble, she wore a hair clip that resembled a directional game pad button.

He blinked, looking at the girl, and then looked at himself. He wasn't wearing his tie or coat; it looked like someone took it off while he was unconscious. Luckily, no one stripped him at least.

"Ummm…" Again, the girl murmured, catching Tetsuya's attention. "Are… are you alright?" The girl seemed worried, despite being in the same room with a complete stranger. "What do you mean?" He calmly asked her.

"I mean, you fell from the sky."

"…" Tetsuya's face morphed into a blank expression after hearing that. He looked back at himself, mentally checking to see if he had any broken bones or sprains from the fall, only to find none. He considered it a miracle that he even survived from such a fall.

"D-don't worry, Compa-san checked on you and you were miraculously fine." The lavender haired girl gave a gentle and cute smile, making Tetsuya look back at her.

"Thanks, but can you tell me where I am?" A look of surprise appeared on her face for a few seconds before she resumed her usual expression.

"O-Oh… sorry you took me by surprise there. We're in Planeptune's Basilicom right now." That name didn't sound familiar to him.

Wait….? Does that mean? "Um, excuse me?" He asked once more in a calm manner.

"Yes?"

"Are we in a place called Gamindustri by any chance?"

"Oh? Yes, we are."

'So it wasn't a dream after all. That Histoire person really did summon me here.' After processing the new information, he began slowly getting out of the bed. He now noticed that he had dirt on his shirt and pants. "I think I'll need to get my clothes from my bag later." Tetsuya thought as he gave himself a cursory glance over.

"Excuse me" the cute girl said, wanting to get the teen's attention. "What?"

"Since you're awake I think Histoire-san wants to meet you now." The name quickly caught his attention. The voice told him that three girls named IF, Compa, and Nepgear would find him. Then the one standing in front of him is one of those three girls.

"I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Yuugita Tetsuya, what's your name by the way?"

"It's Nepgear… ummm… Yuugita-san."

"Oh don't worry, you can call me Tetsuya. I prefer nice people like you calling me by my first name." Nepgear slightly blushed on his comment, "O-okay… T-T-Tetsuya-san…." From her tone, it seems like she never talked to a boy before, Tetsuya thought.

"Hey Nepgear, is the guy awake yet?" A new voice was heard from behind the door as it was opened. There were two girls now. The one on the left was a fair-skinned girl with emerald eyes and light brown hair that is about waist length. Most of the bangs were long and reached down to her eyes, curling outwards and inwards on her face, with a split on the upper corner of her face. Most of her hair was down, with the exception of a ponytail that was held in with a leafy green hair band. She wore a black tank top and black shorts that were held by a belt around her waist. Over these clothes she wore a dark blue, oversized jacket with black, silver, and white detailing and matching boots. She also wore colored cellphone carriers ranging in a variety of colors from light pink to sky blue.

The one on the right is another fair-skinned young girl whose most noticeable features were her orange eyes and her well-endowed chest. She looked to be the same age as the girl on the left. Her hair is a light creamy pink color that is somewhat long and curls along the edges. She wore a black headband with a "C" symbol patched on the side. She wore a white wool tank top with unattached sleeves and matching styled boots. She also wore a red plaid skirt, a black choker with a small heart on it, black kneesocks with light pink heart cut frills, and a black hip purse strapped around her waist. Like her headband, both her purse and the heart on the choker had a "C" symbol.

"Oh, he's awake now!" The pink-haired girl spoke in a happy way.

"Wow, I thought he would be unconscious for a few weeks or months" the other girl who had a pink cell on her hand (When did she pull that out) said with a dumbfounded look. He knew they were talking about how he survived the fall from the sky.

"How long have I been unconscious for?"

"You've only been unconscious for a day to be exact."

"Oh yeah, I forgot to introduce myself, I'm IF and this is Compa here. You're Tetsuya if I'm right?"

"Hello, there Yuugita-san! My name is Compa, as Ai-chan stated. I'm also a nurse so I was the one who took care of you" Compa slightly waved at him with a gleaming smile.

"Thanks, but please, call me Tetsuya rather than Yuugita-san, ok?" Compa like Nepgear was also surprised before blushing.

"Oh! Ummm… Tet-Tet…." This girl probably also didn't meet with boys that much. 'But what's with the nickname' he thought.

"All right, all right, enough of the flirting we got to go to Histoire-sama to inform you're awake." IF stated in a blunt voice. Nepgear and Compa blushed at what IF said.

"F-Flirting!?" Nepgear said astonished. Was IF also including her too?

"W-we aren't flirting, Ai-chan!" Compa trying to reason with her, though that didn't seem to help as IF already left the room.

…

 **-?-**

Tetsuya entered through a set of doors, only to see IF with a girl. A very small girl, to be exact. Her hair was in two blonde pigtails at medium length along with a purple and orange headdress with the letter N in the center. Her blue dress had unattached blue sleeves and a light blue tie. She wore thigh-high socks and white shoes with green circles surrounded by a black line.

"Are you fine now, Tetsuya-san?" He knew this voice. Yes, it was the same voice he was talking to when he fainted!

"I'm fine. Would you be Histoire, the one who called for me?" Histoire nodded to his question, a serious expression on her face.

"Well, should we get back to what we were talking about in your dream, Tetsuya-san?"

"What?"

"Right now, the ASIC, has controlled most of the world."

"The ASIC, what's that?"

"The ASIC, also known as Arfoire Syndicate of International Crime, is a group of followers that are trying to rule Gamindustri." IF answered.

"There's disc burning, disc copying…. Even kids now see piracy as normal, and have put their faith in it."

"Are you serious!?" He now fully understood why Histoire wanted him here.

"In other words, everyone believes in ASIC, so the faith that powers the CPUs has grown very weak." Compa said.

"Faith in the CPUs?"

"Faith is derived from prayers to the goddesses, the CPUs, of each country, but that faith has greatly diminished due to the influence of ASIC."

Histoire sighed. "But it will be fine if it's you, along with IF-san, Compa-san, and Nepgear-san. It may take a while for you to adjust to our world but you will be fine. This I assure you."

"I'll manage, besides I didn't say no, right?" He said it with a usual blank expression. Histoire looked surprised, "Tetsuya-san…."

"But I think I might need new clothes, um, can you give me my school bag?" His school bag had most of the stuff he needed. "I'll get it for you," Compa exclaimed as she ran towards the bedroom again and later in a few seconds, brought back the blue bag. "Here." With her two hands on the strap, Tetsuya grabbed it. "I'll get changed, then we can decide what to do, okay?" Everyone nodded with Tetsuya looking back for a few moments before going back to the bedroom to change.

-A few minutes later-

Everything was discussing about what they were going to do and how to restore faith back to the other countries, until Histoire brought up a totally different topic.

"I knew it was an excellent idea to pick him." Histoire said giving off a smile.

"Is there a reason that you chose him, Histoire-san?" Nepgear, who had been quiet during the whole conversation, finally asked.

"To be exact, a friend had told me about him. About his personality, appearance, and daily activities. He actually fits the profile my friend gave me."

"What's your friend's name?"

" _ **Her**_ name is…-"

"I'm done." As Histoire was about to say the person's name, Tetsuya had already come back wearing his new clothes.

"Wow, you change fast-" IF spoke out before giving a shocked look at his new appearance. He now wore a regular black shirt with an unbuttoned blue collar shirt over it, as well as black cargo pants with a black belt and casual navy blue shoes. To add to his ensemble, he had a Rubik's cube attached to the left side of his belt with a metal chain and a longer metal chain looped on the right side of the belt. On his right wrist was a black-and-white pattern checkerboard wristband. He had another wristband which had a blue-and-red pattern design on his left wrist. Finally, on his pink spiky hair, was a pair of headphones with a flame design in red, orange, and yellow colors.

"…"

"…"

"…"

The girls were majorly surprised by his new, clean appearance. His current look… actually made him look rebellious. The boy did indeed give some strange aura about him or was it something else?

"Should we get going now?" The girls immediately snapped out of their thoughts, "Y-yeah let's go!" IF proclaims as everyone except Histoire went out. For some reason, Histoire giggled.

Histoire looked up to the ceiling " _ **She**_ truly has good advice for dire situations such as this."

...

 **-Planeptune City-**

The four walked down the city streets in bright daylight. Tetsuya looked around in amazement, though his expression remained blank. Everything looked…. futuristic with all the advanced technology.

"So, what now?" IF said, arousing the group's attention. "Oh, should we get some work from the Guild?" As Compa said that, Nepgear had a pensive look on her face as she said "The Guild, huh…?"

"Oh, right. You two have never been there before, have you?" Tetsuya and Nepgear shook their heads. "The Guild is an agency of sorts. We get all sorts of job requests from all over Gamindustri there."

"We take on a job request, complete it, report the results, and get paid. Pretty simple, right?" Tetsuya nodded in understanding, though he couldn't tell if Nepgear came to the same understanding as him.

"Although, actually doing a job request would help you guys get first-hand experience. Alright, let's go."

 **-Guild-**

The group finally found the building. Inside the building, Tetsuya noticed that the reception room had a futuristic touch to it as well. Tetsuya wondered if there were more Guilds like this one. Compa went to the counter to get a job request for them. "Hello! We'd like to sign up for some fun work, please!" After being handed one, IF looked over Compa's shoulder to read the request. "Huh. Only one job request today. Let's see…" She then read the request out loud.

Job Request Overview—

'Defeat the dogoos that are overpopulating Virtua Forest.

There have been reports of travelers being attacked by packs of dogoos. Terminate them.'

"Well… that works for us."

"Virtua Forest is very close from here, and the Dogoos aren't very tough enemies."

'Does that mean that there are dangerous monsters in this world?' As Tetsuya thought that, he saw Nepgear pointing her index fingers towards each other. "O-Okay… But… am I ready for this?" She looked nervous. "Nepgear, you won't know till you're out there. So be confident and you'll be fine," Tetsuya said as he put a hand on her shoulder. This action almost caused her to jump in surprise.

"O-okay…" She finally looked up at him with a slight smile.

"It's just as Tetsuya says, you'll be fine. C'mon, let's head to Virtua Forest." With map in hand, they left the Guild.

...

 **-Virtua Forest-**

Finally arriving at Virtua Forest, they saw nothing but the plain grassland and some trees. IF did say that they were at the right location. The group didn't see anything out of place, until…

A bunch of blue slime-like creatures that looked like a mixture of a big teardrop and a raccoon suddenly appeared. IF saw them approaching. "Oh, I see some dogoos. Ready?"

"Yep, yep!" Compa stated as she brought out her weapon, which was a huge syringe with a "C" symbol on it.

"Of course." Tetsuya claim getting his weapons ready. He assumed a while holding his swords in a reverse grip. He got these from Histoire, who somehow also knew he was good with swords.

"Y-Yes…" Nepgear still looked nervous, but remembering Tetsuya's encouraging words, she mentally psyched herself up as she assumed her battle stance.

Hearing everybody's answers, IF yelled "Alright, let's do this!"

"D-Dogoooooo!" The dogoos yelled towards them. There were only four of them, so the battle should be easy. IF went first using her unique weapon, Qatar.

IF easily slashed the dogoo and it instantly faded away. Next was Compa who was already running to hit one of the dogoos. Nepgear, while gripping her sword tightly, ran towards the other dogoo and slashed it, making it fade away. It was now Tetsuya's turn. It was actually his first battle, though he didn't look troubled. He ran just like Nepgear, but he was more agile and easily slashed the last dogoo faster than the girls.

"Great. Let's finish this job request and go collect our reward."

"D-Dogoooooo!" They saw another one but it left just as quickly as it appeared.

"Goodness, it's hopping away! Hold it right there!" The group now began to run after it.

….

Finally, the dogoo hit a dead end and was cornered by the group. "It's really turning this into a chore. All right dogoo, we've got you cornered now." IF proudly stated. But then…

"Dogooooooooooo!"

"Dog, dogoo!"

"Dogoooooey!"

A huge crowd of dogoos began popping out.

"Yikes! So many dogoos!"

"Wh-What are they doing…?" Nepgear asked almost fearfully.

"Doooooogoooooo!" The dogoos began to merge with each other till a giant dogoo was formed.

"DOOG! GOO! DOGOO!" The giant dogoo bellowed out in a loud, deep voice.

Nepgear's eyes widened as she yelled, "Did they just combine!?"

"Whoa, it's massive… Things just got more challenging for us…" IF was right, the monster was humongous. A look of sudden understanding crossed IF's face.

"Oh, I know. Nepgear, go ahead and transform. That'll make defeating this a snap."

"T-Transform?"

Tetsuya looking at the two girls talking suddenly remembered his conversation with Histoire after she gave him his swords.

Flashback…

"Oh, Tetsuya-san, I forgot to give this to you," Histoire pointed to a red case on the desk. "Since you have no credits, I got this from a friend for you."

Tetsuya picked it up with ease and then opened the case.

"Twin blades?" The sword on the left had a black handle with a metal pommel encrusted with a red jewel. The sword on the right had the same appearance as its twin, though its metal pommel was encrusted with a blue jewel instead. He also noticed that the case had sheaths for them. The sheaths were made of a smooth, dark brown wood. In addition, the sheath on the right, which had a blue sash wrapped around it, had a small dragon etched into it, while the sheath on the left, which had a red sash wrapped around it, had a small phoenix etched into it.

He held the swords with both hands. He performed some experimental slashes till he was satisfied. He looked at the twin swords one more time before putting them into their rightful sheaths. "Thanks, Histoire, I appreciate it, but how did you know I can use swords?"

"Oh, I merely looked at your stats and see what you can use."

'…Stats? What you can use?' What does she mean now!?'

"I can't believe that you can also use a gun at your age. Your physical attacks and speed are good as well; you must have a good mentor." Histoire gave another smile to Tetsuya. But when he heard the words 'good mentor', he involuntarily shuddered.

"Y-Yeah…" Tetsuya then began to walk away holding the swords in one hand.

"One thing first, Tetsuya-san, before you leave with the others." Tetsuya, who stopped, looked back. "What?"

"It's about Nepgear-san. There's something I need to tell you." Tetsuya was still in front of the doors, before turning around.

"Nepgear-san… she truly is a kind and helpful girl. She also wants to work hard for Planeptune, but… she lacks the willpower and confidence to achieve such a thing, unlike her older sister, Neptune-san."

"Neptune?" He did remember the girls, IF and Compa, saying Nep-Nep or Nep-ko, but he never knew those were her nicknames. Also, that name was also on the game console he found too.

"Nepgear-san's older sister, unlike Nepgear-san, was always very lazy and wouldn't do jobs. But she was very active and energetic. She always looked forward without the slightest waver."

"Hmmm..." Tetsuya hummed while listening. He had already guessed that she was lazy, but he was sure that she loved Nepgear as an older sister.

"Nepgear-san…." Again, she said Nepgear's name but went silent for a few seconds before finishing her sentence, "Is **dependent** on Neptune-san."

"…" For some reason, Tetsuya instantly became quiet as his thoughts centered on one word: dependent.

"Tetsuya-san" Histoire's gentle voice got his attention once again. "Please, at any cost, save the CPUs from the Gamindustri Graveyard, and give Nepgear and the others the confidence they need." While listening to her last statement, Tetsuya looked down, his bangs hiding his eyes. He could feel it; the current situation in this world is very serious. He finally looked up with a confident, though blank, expression, on his face.

"I will, Histoire. After all, I don't back out from my promises." Histoire then gave a face that looked like she was almost about to cry, "Thank you very much!"

"Alright, I'll go now. Don't worry; we'll come back with them." He said as he walked toward the doors.

"I promise you that."

Flashback ended….

Right now, from what he was seeing, Nepgear was beginning to lose confidence again after hearing that one word that came out of IF's mouth.

"Y'now, Hard Drive Divinity. HDD. You haven't used it since coming back, right? Here's your chance."

"Ai-chan, you just wanna see Gear-chan in her super pretty HDD form…" Compa jokingly stated to IF. However, they did not notice that Nepgear began muttering to herself. Tetsuya, the one closest to her, was the only one able to catch the few words she was saying.

"Fight… Activate HDD, and fight… Nnnngh…" Remembering the event that occurred not too long ago at the Gamindustri Graveyard, Nepgear became terrified to the point that she began crying.

"Huh!? What's the matter with you?" True, IF wouldn't purposely make Nepgear cry but the current situation was looking pretty bad right now.

Finally opening her eyes that were now covered in tears, Nepgear said, "I…I can't do it! I'm too scared to use it!"

Compa noticed the scene. Right now, she didn't look happy. "Ai-chan! You're being a big bully to Gear-chan right now!"

"Ugh, that wasn't my intention… Jeez, fine! Let's just beat it up the old-fashioned way!" But what the three girls hadn't noticed was that the enormous Dogoo was moving towards Nepgear with Tetsuya the only one noticing again.

'Oh no! It's coming towards Nepgear!'

"Agh! Damn! Nepgear!" He cussed to himself for the first time in the weird world he was in. Trying to reach Nepgear in time, he ran as fast as the wind. He was almost there; the monster was just a few centimeters away from her.

"Nepgear!" He screamed her name as he embraced her while propelling themselves out of the monster's path. "T-Tetsuya-san!" Despite the dogoo being slime, it somehow hurt Tetsuya, and he screamed in pain as they landed on the hard ground.

"Kgh!" He felt a painful, burning sensation in his arm as they skidded on the ground.

IF looked at the dogoo with disgust and anger, "Why you!" IF lifted her hand and a light started to shine on it. "Demonic Inferno!" With a slight twirl of her hand, a huge pillar of flame flared up and surrounded the dogoo, which gave it immense pain. Compa also had the same look as well but it wasn't as intimdating as IF. She held her syringe, "You hurt Tet-Tet!" She rapidly began to hit the dogoo with the huge syringe till it gave an agonizing scream and faded away.

"Ha…ha…ha" Tetsuya panted from the physical exertion. "I'm a bit out of shape, huh?" thought Tetsuya.

"…Why….."

"Huh?" "Why did you save me? You could've been gravely hurt!" Her eyes had more tears; some were dripping down her face.

"So I'm really weak then…" She looked down, tears flowing down.

"No, you're not weak. Not at all." Tetsuya spoke in a calm voice, holding his injured arm.

"Huh?" Nepgear looked up to see Tetsuya's face.

"Even if you are dependent on others or weak, you don't hesitate to help them Nepgear. That makes you strong. Don't let your doubts take control of you. Besides, you're a cute girl so don't let yourself down, okay?" Saying all that was actually normal for Tetsuya, but for Nepgear to hear all that from a man she just met filled her with with happiness.

"Ummmm….Ummmm….." She tried to say something but she couldn't. IF and Compa began to run towards the two.

"Are you two alright?" IF then noticed Tetsuya's injured arm, "You took more damage than we did, why are being reckless on your first job already?!"

"Like what Ai-chan said, Tet-Tet, you shouldn't be reckless!" Now he was getting lectured by the two girls that defeated the huge-sized dogoo.

"S-Sorry…"

"No apologies, Tet-Tet! You could've got hurt even worse." She just said what Nepgear said, but as he thought that the pain began throbbing again.

"Agh!" He yelled in pain. Compa quickly checked his injured arm, "You've aggravated your injury! I'll treat it, okay?" Digging into her small bag, she found a roll of white bandages and began quickly rolling it on the injured arm. It stung, but Tetsuya endured it.

"Jeez, you really are hopeless, you know" After getting his arm rolled up with bandages, he apologized again while being told not to worry them again. After IF told Nepgear to forget what happened, they went back to the Guild in Planeptune. The weird thing was that Nepgear kept staring at Tetsuya almost all day.

...

 **-Guild-**

Tetsuya and the others went into the Guild to get their reward. IF stood in front of him and Nepgear.

"Report the results, and get paid. See? Pretty simple process, right?" IF said.

"Yes. We get work from the Guild, complete it, report it, and then we can collect the posted reward!"Nepgear repeated the words IF told them at the Guild earlier that day.

"Mmh, we get work from the Guild, complete it, and report it, and then we collect the posted reward." Tetsuya repeated after Nepgear.

"Aww, you guys are smart, Gear-chan! Tet-Tet! I am one proud Compa right now!"

…Tetsuya suddenly had a stupid thought that there might be more Compas than he thinks as he lightly scratched his cheek.

IF turned in the request and headed back to the group after she was done. "All right… Histoire-san probably needs more time, so let's take on a few more jobs in the meantime."

"We get to help others, and we can help Gear-chan get big and strong, too!" Compa exclaimed next after IF. "Yeah. But Nepgear, don't do what you did on the last job. The story won't move forward if you just mope around." IF stated to Nepgear in order to reassure her.

As she heard that, Nepgear smiled again. "O-Okay… I'll do my best."

"But…" IF spoke up again, looking at Tetsuya "Tetsuya, you rest." Tetsuya looked bewildered. "Why?"

"Why? Well, you might do something clumsy and reckless again, so just rest in the Basilicom, okay? IF sounded worried. Tetsuya scratched the back of his head before agreeing. "Alright."

As he left to let the girls do more quests, he still felt Nepgear staring at him before shrugging it off. He wondered if she was mad or sad for what he did, though he couldn't help it. After all, Histoire asked him to look after her. But, she said more will appear. Does that mean there will be more people he will have to help? He wondered. Why him? And who told Histoire about him? What if _she_ was the one who told Histoire about him? He really hoped not. He broke out into a cold sweat just thinking about _**her**_.

* * *

 **IF Event:**

 **-Planeptune City-**

Nepgear: IF-san, you worked for Planeptune's Guild, right? Or, I mean, are you still employed there?

IF: Of course. Although with the way things are, it's more of a part-time job right now.

Nepgear: I'm sorry. It's because of me, right?

IF: Nope. Don't sweat it. Even if I'm out of the office, it won't affect the organization much. There are plenty of other agents.

Nepgear: That reminds me, I wanted to ask what the Guild actually…um…does.

IF: Espionage, generally. Guild stuff. Acquire confidential intelligence from other nations, spread misinformation to stir up politicians, or sometimes…

Nepgear: That…doesn't sound very nice.

Tetsuya: (It doesn't sound very nice at all.)

IF: Don't get the wrong idea. We've only handled criminal syndicates like ASIC lately.

IF: Especially these last three years. We've been gathering information about them. Thanks to those efforts, I found out just how serious the trouble facing Gamindustri is.

Nepgear: Oh…I'm sorry. That's my fault, too.

Tetsuya: …

Nepgear: W-What was that for?

Tetsuya: Nepgear, you're not the only one at fault here. If you keep apologizing, it'll make people uncomfortable at times, you know.

IF: It looks like once more you are lectured by the person who's going to help us on this journey.

Nepgear: I-I-It's not funny, IF-san!

IF: But you don't need to worry about it. I've only been able to gather intel not act on the information received.

IF: But we're together now, right? So let's save Gamindustri together.

Nepgear: "Yes! Let's do it!"

IF: That's the spirit. Let's do our best.

Nepgear: Okay!

IF: And I can't forget about you.

Tetsuya: Right.

* * *

 **Compa Event:**

 **-Basilicom-**

Compa: Gear-chan, Tet-Tet, how are you feeling today?

Nepgear: I feel good, all thanks to your care.

Tetsuya: Me too. Thanks for checking on me while I was unconsciousness.

Compa: It was my pleasure. I'm glad my treatment was effective.

IF: Oh, I see, Only Compa gets thanked.

Nepgear: No, no, I'm grateful to you, too! I mean, if you never came to save me, who knows what would've happened…

Nepgear: But that does make me wonder… Why exactly did you two try to save us in the first place?

IF: What do you mean?

Nepgear: You work at the Guild, under Histoire-san, so you I understand, IF-san. But Compa-san's got her life as a nurse to consider.

Compa: That's an easy question to answer! I just wanted to save you.

Nepgear: And I appreciate it, really, but that's not what I'm asking…

IF: I mentioned to her in passing that I was going to save everyone, and then she insisted on going with me.

Nepgear: She forced you to let her come?

IF: Despite her usual demeanor, she's a pretty stubborn woman, and she was particularly hard-headed about this.

Compa: Of course I was! Everything I do is just for Gear-chan, and for Nep-Nep… and for everyone!

IF: That…makes me kind of jealous.

Nepgear: Did you just say something?

IF: No! Just muttering to myself about something completely unrelated.

Compa: We saved Gear-chan, but we couldn't get Nep-Nep. I'm going to stay in this party until we save everyone!

* * *

 **AN: Seriously, I own it to my editor! Even if she is annoying or always yelling at me at times, she's very experience! However, she's almost like a loner similar to a certain character. But unfortunately that character is both of a loner and tsundere.**

 **Black Heart: I am not a loner or tsundere!**

 **AN: WOAH! What are you doing here, No-! I mean! *Ahem* What are you doing here, Lady Black Heart!**

 **Black Heart: I heard you were talking about me!**

 **AN: (Making a obvious innocent face while pretending to sing) ~I have no idea what you're talking about~**

 **Black Heart: I know you were talking about me!**

 **Purple Heart: Ello, Everybody!**

 **AN: Not you too, Nep-! Lady Purple Heart!**

 **Purple Heart: Oh come on! The protagonist's gotta appear in every chapter, ya know, author dude!**

 **AN: You'll get a part soon! Besides you two being here is a very bad idea! Robots, come get them! (Clap both hands)**

 **Robot 1: Yes, Author!**

 **Black Heart: H-Hey! You can't do this! I need to know when will I appear!**

 **(Robot 2 picks up Purple Heart)**

 **Purple Heart: Hey! Don't touch me fleshy flesh, author! I need to know my part soon too! Authooooooooor!**

 **AN: (Sigh) I really need to make a locks for the doors in this movie theater.**

 **AN: Alright, I'll see ya guys in the next chapter! I hope you good reading!**


	3. A Problem? -Locked Off-?

**Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth: Generation of True Gods**

 **Chapter 2: A Problem? Can't go in the -Menu-? -Locked Off-? Mysterious, Mischievous Voices?**

 **AN: Hey, it's Zoarak13 here again! I know I took long but the 2nd chapter came out! It's short though but I'll do Chapter 3 of course! My Editor isn't here right now but she'll come in the next chapter... I hope. From now, I'll do some events that'll interest me and put some dialogues in them and some I made up at the end, I'll also put the dialogues from me, Editor, or other characters at times as well. I'll do some Lily Ranks of course. I'll also answer some peoples questions too! Get to reading this chapter now, viewers!**

* * *

"You really are good at this, Tetsuya-san." Histoire said to him as she sorted through huge stacks of documents. "Well, I had done something similar to this before. Because a **_certain_** someone gave me torture with this task before." He angrily whispered.

"Hm?"

"O-Oh, nothing!" After the battles with the dogoos, Tetsuya explored around the city some more. But he had gotten lost, so, with the help of a map stand, he headed back to the Basilicom. "Is your arm healing?"

"This isn't so bad; it's just a scratch, so you don't need to worry about me, Histoire." Tetsuya never loved to make people worry due to past issues. He did remember one time he tried to save a cat after it got stuck in a tree. But when he reached the cat, he suddenly got hit with a stroke of bad luck, which caused him to fall to the ground from about 3 meters. Luckily, he only received bruises from the fall. That particular memory had him breaking into a cold sweat.

"'We're back!" The voice belonged to Nepgear, with IF and Compa following behind her. On their arms were bags of groceries.

"Oh, welcome back! Have you come to check on Tetsuya?" Histoire floated towards them as she asked. "Yeah, we came to check him up. Especially since a certain someone was so eager to head back to the Basilicom after we were done shopping." IF gave a sly stare to Nepgear, who immediately noticed.

"N-no! IF-san, I just wanted to repay Tetsuya-san back. That's all!" She protested, though the blush on her face didn't help matters. "Alright, alright, I get it. Come on just give it to him." Nepgear began digging into the bag she was carrying. After a few seconds, she got out a set of pistols.

"H-here…" Nepgear held the weapons in a way that made it look she was giving him a love letter instead; head down, bowing at the waist with both arms thrusted out in front of her while clutching the pistols. Nepgear was too embarrassed to make eye contact with Tetsuya.

…But why in this position! She exclaimed loudly in her mind, blush still apparent on her face. Unaware of her thoughts, Tetsuya observed the guns in Nepgear's grasp. 'She didn't need to,' he thought as he grabbed the pistols. They were easy and light enough to grab and hold without trouble. The pistols were the color of iron with black handles. To him, the pistols looked normal enough. As he finished his inspection, he put them back into the bag IF had given to him from the Guild. "Thanks Nepgear."

"N—no problem!" The Planeptune Candidate finally looked up. IF sighed, "Really, we took so long shopping because Nepgear wouldn't stop looking for the 'perfect gift for Tetsuya-san'. She was yammering 'I wonder if this is good' or 'Will Tetsuya-san praise me for this one', right?" Nepgear, whose blush deepened to a beet red, retorted back, "It's not like that!" IF laughed again. Tetsuya really wondered what happened while they were shopping. "Ai-chan, it's not nice to make fun of people." Compa, with an angry look, told IF off.

After a while, Tetsuya remembered something important Histoire told him. "Oh yeah, Histoire told me she located the Mascot." He pointed out.

"Wow, really?" Compa answered back to Tetsuya after finishing her argument with IF. "Yes. You will find it in the area known as Virtua Forest. It seems the Mascot is hibernating there." Histoire finally spoke up.

"Feels like we're finally starting to take action again. Let's roll."

"…" Nepgear suddenly became quiet with a look of disbelief. Compa noticed Nepgear's expression and asked, "Gear-chan? Are you okay? You look a little pale…" Nepgear just shook her head, "Huh? Oh, I'm sorry. I'm okay, really."

"If you say so…" Compa said, though she didn't look convinced. Tetsuya looked at Compa before looking at Nepgear.

"…" He was quiet while still looking at Nepgear before he simply said a quiet 'hm' and left with them.

…

 **-Virtua Forest (Depths)-**

The group went back to Virtua Forest but apparently the Game Mascot's location was deeper into the woods.

"Is the Mascot here…?" Nepgear spoke up first. Compa looked around, seeing only three paths in front of the group. "Which way should we go first?" IF put a hand on her chin as she analyzed which of the three paths would lead them to the Mascot. "Hmm… Crap, don't move! Those monsters are acting strange." As if in an ambush, a bunch of Tulips appeared, surrounding the group. But the weird thing was that they started…

"They are?" Nepgear questioned. Suddenly, the monsters' petals and skin darkened. "Whoa, they just…!"

"As I thought." IF said as she put a serious look on her face.

"Huh? Goodness, what's going on?" Once more, Nepgear questioned what IF said. Indeed, the monsters the group encountered before had never assumed darker colors.

"Monsters are vulnerable to the Deity of Sin's influence, especially when considering all the shares ASIC has." IF explained to the group as she began preparing her qatars as if she knew they were going to attack them, "When monsters are tainted by that influence, they evolve into a more vicious form, like these monsters here."

"It's called going viral!" Compa stated.

"Viral…" Nepgear uttered out the word as she looked at the newly-changed monsters.

"They're far more powerful after the transformation, so keep your guard up!"

"Here we go!" With Compa shouting that, it was the signal to battle. IF went to attack first but when she slashed one of the Tulips with her qatars, it didn't look like it was affected at all. It retaliated back by hitting IF.

"Agh!" IF felt immense pain go through her body as she felt the attack. Tetsuya dashed towards one of the Tulips and utilized a special move. " **Strike Dash!** " He threw one of his swords to the Tulips, which acted like a boomerang as it spun in a circle, slicing through three Tulips as it made its way back to Tetsuya. The girls and monsters momentarily stopped fighting as they were surprised by the move Tetsuya did. Even he was surprised as he looked at his hands, the ones that were gripping the handles of the blades.

"What did I just do?" It was the first time he heard of that move, but his body reacted as if it had done this move many times before.

"Wow! Tet-Tet took three of them out instantly!" He would've probably enjoyed that compliment but there was a battle going on right now! "Okay! Time to use my special move, too! **Mirage Dance!"** Nepgear was next as she once more gripped the beam saber with a tight grip and dashed to one of the Tulips at a near blinding speed, which caught the monster off-guard. As she got near the monster she did some sort of elegant dance as she slashed the monster with a twirl and finished off with a dash of speed that no one can see.

"Well, I can't let them do all the work, can I?!" IF got up and gave the finishing blow to the monster Compa was fighting with her qatars, which faded away.

"Well, that was harder than I thought." IF sighed and put her qatars away in her bag. But as she did that, she fell down on her bottom, "Ai-chan let me get rid of that scrape!" Compa rushed towards IF's side and began putting ointment on the spot where the monster hit her. Nepgear and Tetsuya began to run towards IF to see how she was doing. "Are you okay, IF-san?" Nepgear bent down to get a better look at IF. "It's no problem; it's just that these monsters are really tough."

"I can tell" Tetsuya said while looking at the -Menu- for the first time; it had 9 lines from top to bottom to press on. He pressed on the -Commands-, when he did it only showed two buttons, -Combo Skills- and -SP Skills-. 'It's probably the -SP Skills-' He thought as he pressed the bottom button.

It then showed the available skills he currently had. He looked at his profile but the only weird thing he saw was that his current level was displaying: ?

He ignored it as he pressed his profile.

 **-Locked Off-**

...

...

...

...

...

'…Huh?' He pressed again.

 **-Locked Off-**

"It isn't letting me look at my own profile", he said as his face became expressionless. After Compa finished treating IF, the three girls began circling him to see. "What do you mean?" Nepgear asked as she looked at the screen which still had the red -Lock Off- screen. Tetsuya sighed in an aloof manner as he closed the menu. "Well, I guess I need to ask Histoire about this." He sighed once more before looking at the girls, "We better find the Mascot quickly now." The girls nodded as the group began trudging forward once more while fighting more monsters. Despite the monsters being a bit more difficult to fight than usual, they didn't meet any viral monsters. Until they encountered…

"It's a Fenrir!" IF yelled as she pointed towards the monster. While not really scary, it was larger than a lion. Its claws were just as large, their length about the same as Nepgear's arm.

"B-but Ai-chan! Our levels are low!"

'Are levels really that important in battles like this?!' Tetsuya thought as he contemplated Compa's question. "Can't we just fight it?" He said while looking at IF. A sweatdrop appeared on her face as she said, "To be exact, the last time we tried to fight a Fenrir for a quest, we immediately had to run away…"

"Ah…"

"But maybe this time with Tetsuya here we may win!"

"Yeah!" The girls said in unison while Tetsuya just sweat-dropped. The Fenrir began running towards them as it roared. "Here we go everybody!" Tetsuya went first and sliced at the monster only for it to use its claws to deflect the blow. ' _Klang!_ ' The blade and claw met each other as beast and man sliced at each other while trying to get a hit. 'This monster is tougher than the monsters we fought just now! Is there a way?' Tetsuya's concentration immediately broke as the Fenrir used its other claw to hit him. He used his other blade to block it, holding the monster on the spot.

'I don't know if I can hold it back!' Tetsuya began to sweat as he tried his best to hold the monster in its current position. IF began slashing at its side. While the monster didn't feel much damage, it still roared loudly. Nepgear went next and slashed the other side with her saber.

"Um… IF-san, I don't think we're doing much damage to it." Nepgear said to IF in a displeased tone.

"Yeah, but I think we need to get Tetsuya out of his predicament first." Tetsuya was still holding off the monster, enduring the best he could against the Fenrir's strength. "Monster-san, you need to stop!" Compa began shooting the monster with her syringe. "Don't worry, I'm fine Compa!" Tetsuya yelled to Compa, "But…" Putting more strength into his grip, he managed to push the Fenrir away.

 **"Demonic Flare!"** IF, using the flame spell on the Fenrir, caused lethal damages to it. "It only has a bit of health left, someone finish it!"

"Why don't we have Tet-Tet finish it off?" Compa asked IF.

"I suppose, he is strong so he can do it." IF looked at Tetsuya. He agreed with a nod towards her and dashed towards it.

'Will the same move come up? Or will another one appear?' He didn't care as long they could defeat the monster and then look for the Mascot.

…

 **-?-**

 **"Dispel!"**

…

The monster suddenly let out a loud roar. Tetsuya stopped to stare at what was happening to it. "What the…?"

"RAAAAAAHHHH!" The monster let out an agonizing roar as it disappeared. The group stared in shock at the spot where the Fenrir just disappeared.

"You didn't do that just now?" IF said, coming to Tetsuya's side. He shook his head.

"But then… who did it?" Nepgear asked. That was a hard question indeed. Someone powerful was probably near them.

"Well at least, we completed the quest."

Tetsuya looked at IF with a questionable look, "This was a quest?"

"Well, it was our previous quest, but we couldn't complete it due to it being too powerful for us." IF said in a disappointed tone. Compa said back "Yep! Monster-san was really hard to beat but Tet-Tet beat it for us!"

"But I don't think I did that. Plus, I don't have magical abilities like the ones you guys have." Tetsuya still wondered who beat the Fenrir by making it disappear. He decided to focus back on the current quest by saying "Anyway, let's just go back to finding the Mascot okay?"

The group nodded once more as they proceeded on.

…

 **-?-**

"Hey! Hey! We got it!" A girl yelled towards another girl who looked identical to her.

"Yep! When **Nii-san** sees this, he'll be surprised!"

"Hey you two! We got to Tetsuya's group fast; since I'm pretty sure ASIC had sent another of their underlings to take care of it." A lady who looked between her late teens and early 20's said to them as she jumped off a branch of one of the huge trees of the forest.

"Yeah, yeah, but **Arisa** , shouldn't we have met them and **Nii-chan** earlier?"

"Naaaa. That would spoil the fun," the woman looked towards the path, "It's show time!"

* * *

 **IF Event:**

 **-Planeptune City-**

IF: Oops. I totally forgot to give you something, Nepgear.

Nepgear: Huh? What's this, a present?" Looking at the label of the documents, it said "Nep Bull".

Nepgear: A…product proposal…?

IF: Yeah. Nep-ko gave it to me a while back, but I think you'll make better use of it than I ever would.

Nepgear: I mean, you're into tinkering with electronics and whatnot, right?

Nepgear: Oh goodness, absolutely! Are you sure I can have this? I mean, it was a gift from Onee-chan.

IF: Honestly, I can't read her scribbles. They may as well be moon runes… But you know how to read it, right?

Nepgear: Yes. She made sure that only Histoire-san and myself would be able to decipher her handwriting.

IF: I figured as much. That's why there's no point in me holding onto it. Put it to good use, okay?

Tetsuya: I wondered if it tastes like anything... wait! I think its expired!

* * *

 **Highschool Version**

Histoire: We have a new transfer student, everybody! Please come in.

Histoire: Please introduce yourself.

Boy: I'm Yuugita Tetsuya, nice to meet you.

(Clap! Clap! Clap!)

Histoire: You may sit next to Nepgear-san, Yuugita-san (Nodded and headed towards Nepgear's left side)

Nepgear: Um, nice to meet you, Yuugita-san.

Tetsuya: Same here.

Nepgear: I know this is sudden, but is there any reason why you transferred here?

Tetsuya: It's to escape from a certain someone and annoying twins who are torturing me.

Nepgear: Wha-

* * *

 **An: Alright, this was a decent chapter. So-so I guess. Alright, some things I have to tell you guys by the way.**

 **People! The 666 words in the prologue (changed to more words because I want to) it actually was a coincidence, I didn't know 666 meant, the you know what but yeah. Indeed Tetsuya is actually going to be a little demonish but you'll see!**

 **But don't worry it'll be a harem... in my eyes, but not for Tetsuya... in his eyes.**

 **Writer DXD: Tetsuya's very quiet so you probably thought he would be like Rito from To Love Ru, but you'll see some rough side of him.**

 **Okay I'll answer my questions in the next chapter! Good reading towards you viewers and authors. Bye :D**

 **One thing: To Satoru Iwata. Rest in peace.**


	4. HDD and New People! To Lastation!

**Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth: Generation of True Gods**

 **Chapter 3: HDD and New People! To Lastation!**

 **AN: Finally! Chapter 3 is finished! I asked the Editor to be in this chapter but she didn't want to! I guess I'll ask her to be in the next few chapters (if she does). For the perhaps first time, I think in this chapter I had a Writer's Block as they call it but whatever. Read this chapter now, viewers! Oh yeah! Thanks Akio Blade, for your support, if you didn't post your review, I don't think I could've got of ridden of my Writer's Block so thanks!**

* * *

"Achoo!" Tetsuya sneezed as he felt cold shivers go through his entire body.

"Is something wrong, Tet-Tet?" Compa asked while walking in front of him.

"No, I guess someone is talking about me or something." He sighed as he said that. The group had been going all around the place looking for the Mascot.

"Hey," IF went to Tetsuya's side, "You know, why did you save Nepgear?" IF looked at Tetsuya with a serious face.

"Huh?"

"I mean, you guys just met, it's weird and stupid to do something like that."

"Well…"

Tetsuya lightly scratched his cheek before saying "I guess it was my instinct…." His bangs slightly covered his right eye as he spoke, "Someone has to show her some confidence. Besides she said she wanted to do this so she has to do it or who knows, it's complicated, IF."

"I see…" IF put a hand on her chin before facing Tetsuya again. "You know, you're quite an understanding guy. You're still weird though." She smiled.

"Really? Most people say I'm cold. Although, you got the "weird" part right. But thanks anyway."

She chuckled, though she couldn't tell if he was joking or not. "No problem, by the way…" IF inched closer to Tetsuya.

"What?"

"Hmm… your appearance is quite... intriguing… for a guy" Yes, his spiky hair was pink with a combination of flame-like colored streaks on the right side of his bangs, while his eyes were bright, sky blue.

He sighed at IF's comment, "If you're gonna say I bleached it or something the answer is no." IF made a surprised face "I'm guessing a lot of people said stuff about your hair right?" He nodded.

"Is that all?"

"Well, Compa and Nepgear wanted me to ask about you, since they apparently don't have the guts to ask in person."

"…" Tetsuya became quiet as he lifted some of his hair from his face.

"But we should focus on looking for the Mascot." IF said with a smile with Tetsuya nodding again. They kept walking until IF finally spotted something.

"Oh, is that it over there? I think I see something!" IF pointed towards the object she spotted.

"Me too! Wait… Huh….? Someone's already there." Compa pointed towards a figure. But for some reason the person seems to be hitting something as the group heard a *Klang* *Cack*and more sounds.

"Seems as though that person is trying to break…something… What the goodness!? Please stop!" As they ran towards the figure, Nepgear was right; the person had something in their hand and was clearly breaking something. But… it couldn't be…

The person stopped to face the one who yelled at her. "Huh? Who the hell are you three? You'd better stay outta my way, kids." The person's looks were somewhat boyish, though they could tell that the person is a girl. She wore a big, unzipped gray jacket with a mouse-eared hood, with white and black lining, white whisker markings and a big black mouse nose displayed on the hood. The inside of the jacket is red-colored, while it has black, spiked lining and cuffs with thin spiked white-lined markings in the center. Around her neck is a black choker, and she had a very small black tube top on with X-shaped strings in the middle with an open heart on each side, one being red and the other yellow. Her gloves are black, with the underside being red to match her jacket. She wore plain baggy pants, which was black at the top with loose black strings flowing at the bottom. On her feet she wore black boots with strings going up the center.

The person has odd white-purple skin and ruby red eyes with noticeable pointed ears. She has a two-pieced belly button ring consisting of silver pieces. Her hair is a pastel green color with a few spiked bangs.

"Likewise, missy! What are you doing to the Mascot!?" Compa retorted.

"Uh, destroying it, duh. Orders from ASIC. They're a nuisance."

"You're a member of ASIC, then?" IF asked.

"Heh. Not like I got any reason to explain myself to you, but… All right, listen up!" She put on a smug expression. "I'm a proud and mighty member of ASIC's front-line infantry. Don't you forget it!"

The moment when she finished, everybody had gone silent, while still looking at her. "Front-line infantry? Wouldn't that make you just one of their expendable underlings?" IF said finally breaking the silence. The 'underling' put on a shocked face at what she said. "Definitely an underling."

"Miss Underling is definitely an underling." Compa said.

"Hm-Hm" Tetsuya nodded after putting on perhaps his blankest stare.

"What!? Where the hell do you get off calling me an underling, huh!?"

"Underling's the only name you need, Underling. Now beat it."

"Could you please move out of our way, Miss Underling?"

"If she's just an underling, maybe I could fight her…"

"Ugh! Underling this, underling that! Enough already, you brats!"

"Now you've really pissed me off! You'll regret calling me that!"

"Kyaaaah!"

"Jeez, how is she this powerful!?"

"Do you think it's because ASIC has so many of this area's Shares?"

"Hah… For so much bark, you idiots had no bite at all. Now to kill you one by one, starting with…hmm…"

"Eep."

"Let's start with you, brat!"

"Um, well, but… I didn't really do anything, so…"

"Watch out!" Tetsuya cried out loudly as he jumped towards Nepgear when the Underling lifted her weapon.

"Woohoo!" A young female voice exclaimed from out of nowhere.

" **Huh?"** You can just see the question marks appearing above their heads.

*Bam!*

A pair of legs suddenly hit Tetsuya's back with sheer force. As if time had slowed down, the kick sent Tetsuya flying in another direction, or more specifically, head-butting a certain Underling in the stomach.

"Ouch!" Both Tetsuya and the Underling yelped in pain with the Underling holding her stomach and Tetsuya rubbing his back and forehead.

"Gack! My back!" He screamed after a bone had suddenly snapped (in a comical fashion).

"Yes! We saved Tetsuya and the others just in time!" The same voice said cheerfully. The voice belonged to a woman who was currently standing atop Tetsuya's back.

The woman looked to be in her early 20's and she was quite a beauty, with smooth, silky skin. She had long, flowing pink hair tied into a ponytail and light green-blue eyes that seem to reflect the ocean's surface. She also wore a red, unbuttoned collared-shirt with short sleeves over a navy blue shirt. She also wore black sweatpants along with strap-on sport sandals.

"Jeez, Arisa, you're going to hurt Nii-san's back again!" Two girls appeared behind the woman.

The one who had said "Nii-san" was a girl who looked around 14-15 years old with a single, waist-length blue pigtail tied on the left side of her head along with bright amethyst eyes. She was wearing a black sailor fuku with gold-yellow lining, a black skirt with gold-yellow trimming, and a gold-yellow ascot.

"You know Nii-chan has a serious back problem!"

The other girl looked identical to the blue-haired girl and was wearing the same outfit as well, except her hair was red and the pigtail was on the right side of her head.

"Oh come on! Tetsuya's fine, right?" The woman said as she looked down on Tetsuya. She didn't know that she was putting pressure on his "broken" back.

"A-Arisa…" He grumbled as he tried to get her off of him.

"Oh, Tetsuya! Are you alright!? Did that Underling hurt you?" Now sitting on top of him, she rolled his body for him to face her as she inspected his face. She didn't seem to notice the big tic mark appearing on Tetsuya's head and-

"…I would be if you hadn't kicked me, you dumb moron!"

IF, Compa, and Nepgear looked surprised at Tetsuya's new manner of speaking towards the woman named "Arisa".

"Wait! Aren't you Hoshikawa Arisa!" IF said as she walked towards her.

"Oh! IF-chan, Compa-chan, it's been a while." Arisa waved towards the girls till she saw Nepgear.

"You must be Nepgear, the CPU Candidate of Planeptune, right? You're the one Histoire and Neptune talked about all the time!"

"Wait a minute, Arisa!" Tetsuya raised a shaking hand while still lying on the ground.

"How do you know them? Actually, where in the world did you, Akako, and Aoko come from!?"

The woman sighed, "Jeez, we'll tell you soon. It's not like I'll be doing anything random while I'm at it."

"…Yeah like kicking me from the sky or something…" He muttered looking away from her.

"Did you say something?"

"Oh nothing," He unpleasantly said with an angry face.

"Well, looking at the situation right now…" Arisa turned looking at the Underling who was trying to get up.

"It looks they did send an underling to do their dirty work as usual."

"Yep this kinda feels like the usual for some reason."

"As usual…"

The twins said before one another. The Underling grew angrier with each word they said.

"Seriously! All of you are dead now!" The Underling exclaimed as she picked up her baton. She glared at Arisa while preparing her attack.

"Oh my, the Underling is angry but I just got the right tool for this moment! Tetsuya!" Arisa grabbed something from her pocket and quickly threw it to Tetsuya who caught it.

"T-This is….?" Tetsuya recognized the mysterious item that she had thrown to him. A simple pocket knife with a strange design. The hilt was the color of stainless black steel and it had a design of a dragon that was wreathed in blue flames.

"It should activate now!"

Suddenly, after Arisa said that, the pocket knife began to glow brightly.

"Huh?" Tetsuya could still feel the cool handle of the knife but the light emanating from it grew so bright to the point that he had cover his eyes.

"Waaaaah!"

The light finally enveloped everybody as they covered their eyes with their arms.

…

…

…

…

 **-?-**

" **Mmmmhhmmm…" Tetsuya slowly opened his eyes, his hands on the… ground? Yeah he was lying prone. But it wasn't the silver ground of Virtua Forest, it felt rougher and he could feel tiny pebbles that crunched underneath his hands. His eyes, now opened wide, looked around, even though he instinctively knew that he was somewhere else and definitely not in the Virtua Forest. Now on his feet, he looked around to see where he was.**

 **The mysterious place looked to be a craggy land with a few features reminiscent of a rocky landscape. There were only tall and small rocks and nothing else. When Tetsuya looked up, all he saw was a clear blue sky. The sky didn't seem real to him, though he didn't know how he came to that conclusion. After a few moments of deliberation, he decided to explore his surroundings.**

" **Jeez, where did Arisa send me to?" Making an annoyed face, he rubbed his head but then came to a realization.**

"… **Wait," He looked at the hand that he scratched his head with. The pocket knife was gone.**

" **Oh crap! Did I drop it?" He ran back and looked around again and again, but to no avail.**

" **Noooooo!" Tetsuya dropped onto his knees, with his hands on the firm, hard ground. Tetsuya rarely did this, and with good reason. That pocket knife… was also something special to him other than his headphones.**

" **I've gotta find it!" The boy yelled out loud. He began circling around the place only to find more rocks. He climbed onto a rock wall that had ledges.**

" **Guhhhh…. I really do need to work on my climbing..." Without hesitation, he continued climbing each ledge or jumping on them (with difficulties, he almost fell off the ledges several times).**

" **Wah! Now I'm feeling another chill again!"**

 **Continuing to move up, he spots something shining above him. When he finally managed to reach the top, he realized what it was. The shine was emanating from the pocket knife. Tetsuya began to run towards it till he got a better look.**

" **It's floating?" Currently, it was inside a clear, floating sphere that was giving off its own light. Tetsuya resumed till he was inches away from the sphere. For some reason, he had the feeling that if he grabbed the knife now, something would shoot a laser ray at him, which would vaporize him on the spot. But he wanted the pocket knife; plus no one was here (probably). He lightly grabbed the floating pocket knife.**

 _ **Well, well, what do we have here?**_

 **A voice called out as Tetsuya saw a shadow appearing behind the sphere the pocket knife was floating in. Tetsuya could only discern a few distinguishable features, since the shadow was covering most of the figure's appearance. From what he could tell, the figure was as tall he was and was wearing a jacket and long pants. The figure also seemed to have unkempt hair.**

 _ **So she finally made him get the "power", huh?**_

 _ **Heh, no big deal, this guy is a moron after all, trying to save a girl despite meeting her for the first time.**_

" **Huh?"**

 _ **Don't worry about me, you'll learn soon.**_

" **Who are you?"**

 _ **I told ya, you'll know soon moron, when you finally meet 'them' again after all these years.**_

" **Who's 'them'! Dammit, just who are you!"**

 _ **Man, you haven't changed at all. Always so short-tempered, always demanding answers. Calm down for a bit.**_

 **Tetsuya glared at the figure, though its effect was quite lessened since he couldn't even see the figure's face to gauge his (or her?) reaction. This person seems to know a lot about him.**

 _ **Ah it's coming. I guess I gotta go now.**_

" **W-Wait!" Tetsuya tried to approach the figure, only to discover that his body wouldn't move. In fact, he was stuck in place as the land began to dissolve into darkness.**

 _ **May we meet again, arrivederci…**_

 **Before Tetsuya could respond, he felt himself falling into unconsciousness.**

… _ **..Tet…..su…ya…Really…**_

…

 **-Virtua Forest (Depths)-**

Tetsuya immediately opened his eyes. He found himself standing where he was once before, with the pocket knife in his hand.

'Who was that guy?'

Tetsuya gripped the pocket knife more firmly.

"Woah! That was really bright, I wonder what happened?"

Strangely, there wasn't even a hint of surprise in Arisa's voice when she said that.

"Arisa! What's with the pocket knife?"

Tetsuya didn't feel anything different. To him, nothing really happened.

"Hah… Gotta explain huh? But we don't have time so…. Wait actually I think I should just show you." Arisa pulled Tetsuya and Nepgear towards her to the point that the distance between them was probably about 5 centimeters.

"Hey, twins! Did ya tie the Underling?" Arisa looked over and saw Akako and Aoko tying up the Underling. They also placed duct tape on her mouth for good measure.

"Mmgggghhgggmmhhmm!"

"Underling-san, this is a really important scene right now so we can't let you bother it!" Akako exclaimed happily as she tightened the ropes.

"MMMgghHHHHHH!"

"Uh, I think you're suffocating her Akako," Tetsuya said with a dismayed face.

"Alright, with that done, Nepgear!"

"W-what!" Nepgear, with a blushing face, yelled out loud.

"Nepgear, did you notice that Tetsuya was about to take the hit for you?"

"Huh? S-so you mean what I saw was…" Nepgear said slowly as she looked at Tetsuya.

"…" He was quiet.

"Well, IF-chan was also about to, but Tetsuya reacted faster."

"You too IF-san!?"

"Wah! Umm, ahh…" IF looked shocked at what Arisa said.

"Look I know." Arisa said, putting a serious face. "Nepgear, I know you can't transform now because you're still traumatized over what happened at the Gamindustri Graveyard."

"That's why… you need to transform, not only to help your sister, Neptune, but to also overcome that trauma!"

"Yeah, like Arisa says" Akako and Aoko appeared behind Nepgear, causing her to jump.

"We'll help you too." Aoko put her hand on one of Nepgear's shoulders.

"Aoko-chan… Akako-chan… Arisa…-san."

"Oi! Come on Tetsuya." The twins tugged their older brother closer to Nepgear.

"Ow! Can't you guys be more gentle?" Tetsuya moaned as he looked at the twins, who smiled at him.

"Nii-chan can help you know!"

"Yeah… Nii-san always helps people!"

"Not really…"

"Go ask him." Arisa spoke towards Nepgear with a smile.

"Huh?"

"Go ask why he would save a cute girl like you."

Nepgear slightly blushed at the comment before shaking it off and looking at Tetsuya.

"Tetsuya-san."

"…" He was quiet again when she faced him.

"W-why…" Nepgear stuttered a bit until continuing.

"Why did you rescue me?" Tetsuya sighed and rubbed his head.

"Well…" He continued scratching his head until he… smiled?

"It's because I want to help you transform to save your sister obviously."

"Huh?" Nepgear said again.

"I mean we aren't going to be able to save your sister in one day. I just want you to regain your confidence, to be able to reunite with your sister, to help people, and other stuff."

"Tetsuya-san…" He began to walk up to her, showing that he was of course tall and brought out his hand and placed it on her… head.

"W-wha…"

*Rub* *Rub* *Rub*

"It feels nice doesn't it?" Once again, Tetsuya went back to his blankexpression and continued patting her head.

Feel good? To Nepgear, it felt surprisingly warm. Her face began to heat up again.

'What's with this warmth? It feels like kindness is radiating off from it. It feels like… Neptune. No…'

' **A sibling's warmth…'**

"Yuck. Enough of the soap opera crap." A voice had broken the nice mood.

"Wha! The Underling managed to untie herself?!"

"We even made it tight too!"

"Dang! It must be the Shares ASIC have right now. If they didn't have any right now, this would be easy."

Nepgear, now focused on the situation, began to think.

'I'm so scared, but I need to fight… I have to become stronger, otherwise all my friends will suffer…'

"I won't let that happen!"

All of a sudden, a bright, purplish light suddenly started emanating from Nepgear.

"Hey, Arisa! Look!" Akako pointed to Nepgear.

"She got her confidence back!"

The light got bigger till it suddenly exploded outwards.

Tetsuya was the first to see the transformation because he was the closet to Nepgear. Nepgear's hair not only started changing to a brighter shade, but it also grew all the way to her knees while her bangs grew as well. The clothes she wore were now gone, replaced with a white bathing suit with a revealing chest piece colored a bright lilac shade. It connected around the neck with similarly colored gloves and boots. Nepgear started slowly floating. Floating non-attached shoulder pads appeared, then around her waist 3 floating diamonds appeared, and finally, her hairclip changed to a round white piece with a blue center. 1s and 0s floated around her till they faded from view once the transformation finished.

Once again, another light exploded brightly.

"What!? Oh crap, you're a CPU!" The Underling exclaimed in shock after seeing Nepgear's transformation.

Nepgear finally opened her eyes, showing bright blue eyes. Attached to her right arm was a big gun blade that had the same features as her white and purple outfit.

"Prepare yourself! I'm not going to ever lose again!"

Nepgear dashed to Underling and whacked her like how she does with her beam saber. The Underling retaliated with her baton. Nepgear shrieked from the pain. Both of them had taken huge damage from each other, but Nepgear now had the upper hand with her transformation.

"Damn, she got stronger!" The Underling wasn't able to move much due to Nepgear's attacks.

Taking a few more hits, the Candidate decided to use her only SP skill: **Mirage Dance.**

"This is my sword dance! Mirage Dance!" Nepgear dashed with a swing to the hit the Underling, then she hit her again with another swing. Next, she did an upward swing, then a downward swing. On the last part of the dance, she let loose another swing so fast that the viewers could barely see it. The victor was already decided by that Skill alone.

"Gaaaah! Dammit, that's not fair! I mean, transforming and stuff? C'mon!" The Underling rudely exclaims out loud.

"I'll spare your life if you leave now in peace."

"'Oh yes ma'am, thank you so much… If you think I'd say that, pull your head outta your ass! I got a job to do!" The Underling ran towards the Mascot.

"No, wait!" Nepgear yelled.

"Why would I listen to you!? Urrryah!" The Underling used her baton and with a hard swing, smashed the Mascot into pieces.

"The Mascot…!"

"Hehehe. Serves it right."

"I'm all done here. Next up, Lastation's Mascot!"

"Don't you run away! Ugh, jeez. She's too fast for her own good." IF tried to get up but to no avail.

"Oh, no… The Mascot…"

" **Worry not, CPU Candidate."**

"Huh? A voice…? But, who…?"

" **I am this nation's Mascot. How unexpected to have my body destroyed while I was sleeping…"** A slight white glow appeared on a sphere like shape.

"U-um, so…you're okay? I mean, you're talking even after you got smashed to pieces…"

"' **Okay' is not quite accurate, but fortunately, I was able to separate parts of my power from my body."**

" **Here. I will grant what power I have left to you."**

"Goodness… This is the power of a nation's Mascot, then?"

" **CPU Candidate, I have no way of knowing what has transpired since I began my long slumber… But I have faith that you will use my power for a just cause."** Immediately, it had already vanished when giving its power to Nepgear.

"And just like that, the Mascot is gone. Man, that was a close call."

"Yes. But we managed, thanks to you, Tetsuya-kun."

"Eh? Tetsuya-kun?"

"Ah! I-I'm so sorry!"

"No, no it's okay, I don't mind."

"O-okay… but Tetsuya-kun." Nepgear floated in front of the boy.

"Um, Nepgear…?"

"Don't do something like that again, you'll make us worry again!"

"Ahahaha…" He lightly laughed with an aloof face.

"Yeah, Tet-Tet, like Gear-chan says, don't do something dangerous like that!"

"Man, the prince tried to save his princess." IF said next after Compa.

"Oi, IF, don't make it sound like that, you were about to do the same thing I was about to do." Tetsuya voiced the last part with a bit of teasing (probably?).

"H-hey!" IF blushed at his comment.

"Tet-Tet, it's not fair you get to be lovey-dovey with Gear-chan and Ai-chan! Include me too!"

'Compa, do even know what you're even saying?' Tetsuya said in his thoughts.

"Hey, what about us? We helped too you know." Arisa said with an eye raised.

"Yeah!" The twins exclaimed in together.

"Hahahaha… Sorry Arisa-san, Akako-chan, Aoko-chan, thank you."

"You're welcome. Phew, we have the Mascot's power. We should report back to Histoire now." Everybody nodded, and started heading back to the entrance of the Virtua Forest.

…

 **-Planeptune's Basilicom-**

After retrieving the Mascot's power, everybody returned to the Basilicom with IF reporting to Histoire.

"It appears you have indeed secured the power of Planeptune's Mascot. However…"

"We now know that ASIC and its cronies are aware of the Mascots' existence, too." IF says in a serious manner.

"Underling-san said she was gonna take a trip to Lastation next." Compa was right, the Underling blabbered out loud that she was going for Lastation's Mascot.

"We should quickly chase her, or she'll get there ahead of us again."

"I see that Nepgear-san's passion has been relit."

"Um, yes… I'm still fighting off some of my fear, but I should be fine now."

"Excellent. I suggest you do as I say and hurry over to Lastation."

"Regain Shares and seek the Mascots… Oh, I nearly forgot to give you an important piece of advice."

"What is it?"

"CPU Candidates like Nepgear-san reside in both Lastation and Lowee."

"That would make them Noire-san's and Blanc-san's younger sisters then…"

"CPU Candidates… Other girls like me…"

"Each nation has their own situation to deal with, so they may refuse at first… but making contact is vital."

"After all, I am certain they share your desire to save their sisters."

"Sounds like we have our plan. Let's get to Lastation!"

"Right!"

Once again, they were off on their journey of going to each country and finding the CPU Candidates. With Nepgear able to transform to her HDD form again, they were ready. There was going to be no obstacles stopping them now. To save Gamindustri and their older sisters!

Arisa stretched out on the chair she was on. "Ahhhh, finally I can have my break. At least I stopped 'that' from happening."

"Huh?" The twins had question marks floating above their heads as they actually don't know what Arisa was talking about.

"Don't tell me you forgotten?!" Arisa stood up from her chair with a fist out in front of her.

"Nepgear! Don't let Tetsuya deceive you!"

"H-huh!? Wh-why…?" Nepgear said surprised at Arisa's statement.

"Don't let Tetsuya's handsome looks and charming words deceive you! He just wants you to be in his cute girls-only har-"

*Bam!*

Arisa now lied on the floor with a big bump on her head.

"Don't tell them stupid lies, moron."

"I am sorrrrryyyyy…~"

Once again, the girls were shocked by his change in personality but the one most shocked was Histoire.

"Oh, but there's one thing that I should mention, Tetsuya." Arisa had one hand out.

"What?"

"Do you have homework?"

"Huh?"

"I said do you have H-O-M-E-W-O-R-K."

"Uhhhhh….. Don't we have to go to Lastation first?"

The room suddenly felt chilly now, with Arisa giving off an intimidating aura and a smile that promised pain beyond comprehension.

"We should rest first after all the conflicts we went through, so homework comes first."

"Uhhhh….." Tetsuya became dismayed at the woman's words.

"Tetsuya, I was thinking you might've only agreed to help Histoire and the others so you could have the perfect excuse to skip homework. Do you?" Arisa's smile and face became overly smug.

"Gah!" Tetsuya felt like an invisible arrow pierced through him as she said that. It was as if Arisa read his mind, though she wasn't psychic. She was right though, Tetsuya never liked doing homework. Thus, Arisa had to force him to do it for a reward.

"All right, let's do homework~" With that, Arisa began dragging him away with the twins following as well.

"No! No! I don't want to! NOOOOOOOO!" Tetsuya screamed loudly as they moved on to the next room.

The three girls were in a state of shocked silence after seeing another new aspect of the bot that just left. Suddenly, they started laughing.

" **Ahahahahahahah!"** Even Histoire laughed with them.

Scratch that, it looks like obstacles will pop up during their journey, whether they expect them or not.

…

 **-?-**

In the hall of an office building, the Underling was walking till she reached a door that had a golden plate that said "HEAD OFFICE" in printed letters.

"Boss, I'm reporting in."

The Underling, who was now in an office room which had features of a CEO's office, was reporting to her "boss", who was sitting in a chair with its back facing her. "Um, boss, I destroyed Planeptune's Mascot!"

" _I see. I have another task for you and Warechu as well. Come in."_ The brown door opened to show a small dark grey mouse. He has red eyes and two white whiskers on each cheek. He has small maroon wings on his back. On his chest was a red and yellow broken heart design. He has a thin, black tail that has something similar to a big, black, broken heart at the tip. He holds a disc in one of his hands.

"I'm here boss, chu!"

" _Good. I want you two to look for Lastation's Mascot now. Separate and find information on the Mascot. Got it?"_

" **Roger!"** They said in unison.

" _By the way, Linda, were there people after Planeptune's Mascot as well?"_

"Y-yes boss! They were five broads and one boy. One of the broods was a CPU Candidate too!"

" _Hmmm… I'm pretty sure one of them was the CPU Candidate of Planeptune. Hmm… Linda?"_

"Y-Yes!"

" _Can you tell me about the boy? His appearance for starters?"_

"Of course boss! The guy has weird pink spiky hair with bleached bangs! And he has blue eyes too."

" _Bleached bangs? What color were they?"_

"It was, well, I guess red, orange, and yellow combined together…?"

" _What's his name?"_

"Oh! It's uh, what was it again, guh, damn!" The Underling rubbed her head till the memory came back.

"Oh yeah, the guy's name was Tet-uh, Tetsuya!"

" _!"_ The "boss" made a sudden movement in her chair, though her back was still facing the duo.

"Boss?"

" _I see… You should rest before going to Lastation. Alright, you two?"_

" **Yes boss!"** The two of them exit out of the room to leave the boss alone.

"… _."_ The boss stood up from her chair to show that the boss is indeed female. She looked out the window. From her position, she could see the four nations from the floor she was on. Then, a sly smile appeared on her face.

"Really? I hope to see you soon, **Tetsuya**."

…

 **-Finally at Lastation** -

After Tetsuya finished a huge amount of homework at the Basilicom, the group finally made the trip to Lastation. Nepgear looked around the city, the tall buildings were black according to its other name "The Land of Black Regality" or "steam punk" and a huge satellite was among them as well. She looked around the city in amazement.

"Wow, Lastation is chock full of nifty gadgets and machines…!"

"Is this your first time coming here, Gear-chan?"

"Yes, but I've heard stories from Neptune about it. She'd bring me baggies of gears sometimes…"

"Oooh, this place looks like so much fun for tinkering…! It'd be great if we could look around a bit…" Tetsuya swore that he saw Nepgear's eyes shining or was it his imagination?

"Cool your jets. We have more important things to deal with right now."

"Y-yeah, you're right. We have to do our best, or Lastation will be in danger… Must. Not. Window shop."

"Ai-chan, do you know of any leads."

"Well, we should head to the Guild first. We can get Intel and take on quests to recover Shares there, too." With that, everybody began the search for the Guild.

* * *

 **IF Event:**

Nepgear: Histoire-san is the Guild's boss, right?

IF: Yeah, she's the Oracle and the Guild's manager. It's admirable that she can handle both roles.

Nepgear: How does Histoire-san act at the Guild? I only know her as an Oracle, so…

IF: Well… She seems to know everything, and can do just about anything… but…

 **-Planeptune's Basilicom-**

Operative A: Histoire-sama! What are the estimated coordinates of ASIC's base of operations this time!?

Histoire: I am currently calculating. The result will be ready in about three days.

Operative A: That's way too slow!

Operative B: Histoire-sama, do you have any information on this suspect?

Histoire: That is a familiar face, but I will need about three hours to remember.

Operative B: Can't you do it in three minutes!?

Operative C: Pardon me, Histoire-sama. I require a map showing all know distribution points of Arfoire products.

Histoire: I can prepare that for you, however, compiling the data and mapping it out will take about three months.

Operative C: In three months, the entire map will be outdated!

 **-Back to IF, Nepgear, Tetsuya, and Arisa-**

IF: She takes way too long to do anything.

Nepgear: Ahahaha… That's our Histoire-san.

Arisa: That's also the reason why it took three years to get Shares too.

Tetsuya: ….*Chew**Chew*(Currently just following along with two strawberry Pocky sticks in his mouth and playing his Rubix cube).

* * *

 **Compa Event:**

Compa: Everybody, please listen up. I am now a fully licensed nurse practitioner!

Nepgear: Golly, congratulations! You were just an intern when we first met, right?

Compa: Tee-hee! While you were away, I was studying my bum off.

Nepgear: I see. Three years is a long time…

Nepgear: Oh, but if you've become a nurse, you have to work at a hospital, right?

Compa: Oh, don't sweat the small stuff. Let's just say they let me put in all my vacation hours, okay?

Nepgear: If you take too long of a vacation, won't they fire you…?

Compa: If they do, I'll work at a free clinic or something!

Compa: More importantly, if I'm gone, who'd take care of you and Ai-chan when you get covered in bruises?

Nepgear: Compa-san…you're so nice to us! Thank you for everything!

Compa: No problem! You can get slapped silly as often as you want, because I'm here to bandage you up!

Nepgear: Hahaha. Now it sounds like you enjoy it when we're injured…

Tetsuya: …Seems like it.

Arisa, Akako, Aoko, and IF: (Nods in unison).

* * *

 **Highschool Version: New People... Again!**

(Currently walking back home with Tetsuya, Nepgear, IF, and Compa)

Underling: Hah! Give all your money!

(Dashes towards Nepgear)

Nepgear: Kyaahhh!

Tetsuya: Watch out!

(Takes the hit for Nepgear).

Nepgear: Yuugita-san!

(Holding his body)

?: Hiyaahhh!

(Kicks the Underling towards Tetsuya)

Underling: Ouch!

Tetsuya: Ow!

?: Yeah! We stopped the thief!

(A old lady shows up!)

Old Lady: Hey!

Tetsuya: Arisa...

Later on the next day after that crisis. She and new students joined at the school Tetsuya's at.

Tetsuya: WHY?!

* * *

 **AN: Phew, I hope this chapter was better than the others. Ugh, in some of the few chapters I had to edit some. Some of you guys might or might not like but that's what I think.**

 **Tetsuya: How come it took about 2 or 1 month to finish this Author!**

 **AN: Ummmm...**

 **Arisa: Hope the Author wasn't lazy again.**

 **Author: Hey!**

 **Akako: But hey we finally made a real appearance!**

 **Aoko: Yeah, we just appeared as silhouettes.**

 **AN: Hey guys! Don't spout out things new viewers want to hear! *Sighs* Whatever its time to end this chapter now.**

 **Everbody: Yeah!**

 **Everybody leaves except for Author.**

 **AN: As usual, I answer some questions and other stuff but yeah. Hope you guys will be seeing chapter 4! Bye bye!**

 **Author finally leaves.**


	5. Lastation Part 1: Twintail Girl, Bargain

**Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth: Generation of True Gods**

 **Chapter 4: Lastation Part 1: Twintail Girl and a Huge Bargain**

 **AN: AHhhhhhhh MAN! I'm very sorry that I didn't bring the chapter here, but finally I finished it through this stressful week!**

 **Tetsuya: Well, I guess that's good because you finally updated for once in two months.**

 **Arisa: Yep.**

 **Akako and Aoko: Hmm Hmm**

 **AN: Hey! ...Well, yeah, I don't own Hyperdimension Neptunia, only you guys, oh, I just said the disclaimer.**

 **Arisa: You could have led us do it.**

 **AN: It's okay, next time, but I should say... Get to reading this chapter, viewers!**

* * *

 **-Planeptune's Basilicom-**

"Sorry for that weird moment, but we should reintroduce ourselves, I'm Hoshikawa Arisa!"

"And I'm Yuugita Akako!

"…I'm Yuugita …Aoko…"

Oddly, all of them did poses together: Arisa was in the middle looking like she was going to flap her hands like wings while the twins stood at her left and right with their hands also like Arisa's, though Aoko looked embarrassed since her face was beet red. Everybody just sweat-dropped in response while Tetsuya slammed his face on the table.

"You don't need to do those stupid poses again; you guys already did that the first time you came here! And why am I the only one doing homework!?" Tetsuya grimaced, pointing a wooden pencil at them while trying his best not to snap it in half due to his annoyance.

"Hm Hm! Nii-chan, we already finished ours already!" Akako and Aoko brought out their homework and thrust the papers to his face.

"What!?" He took the papers and quickly looked through them, making his grimace more pronounced, with his mouth hanging down.

"Tetsuya, Tetsuya. You don't get it do you? You need your education ya know, I'm your mother you know."

"Adopted. Mother."

"Huh!?" Nepgear, IF, and Compa yelled out.

"What?" Tetsuya said with a blank expression on his face.

"Well, it's just that we thought you guys are related because you look like each other and stuff!" IF stated out loud pointing at the two family members. The whole family put up expressionless faces that were equal to Tetsuya's current expression. There was a moment of silence.

"Sigh…" Tetsuya closed his eyes while letting out an aloof sigh.

"It may be true that we kinda look alike but Arisa is my, Akako, and Aoko's adopted mother. To be more specific, she's our guardian."

"So does that mean… Tetsuya…"

"Yep, I'm pretty much an orphan to finish your statement." Those words gave the silent mood a sad tone to it.

"I-I'm sorry…" Nepgear said despite not doing anything.

"No, it's okay. No time for that sad stuff. We should prepare to go to Lastation."

"Oh… Okay!" Nepgear's sad faced beamed with a bright smile now along with Compa, IF, and Histoire.

"…Right after I finish my last math homework…" Tetsuya said in dismay. Everybody had to chuckle at his mention of homework. Right now, they were facing a serious situation, but for now, the mood was light.

…

 **-Few minutes of preparation-**

"Alright, we got everything!" Compa happily exclaimed as she put her bandages and miscellaneous items in the bag.

"Compa-san, here are the drinks." Nepgear carried a handful of water bottles and Nep Bulls in her hands.

"Thank you, Gear-chan!"

"So how was it?" Histoire had asked about Arisa's progress on the Shares now. She shook her head and said in a serious face, "Hmmm, still not good. ASIC, as usual, still has a lot of Shares." Histoire gave a disappointed look and sighed.

"I see," was the only response she gave of the report.

While they were still talking, Nepgear was helping Compa, IF was looking at her pink phone to contact her friends in all the nations, Akako and Aoko were whispering to each other about doing something to their older brother, and Tetsuya finally finished his last math homework.

"Finished!" He immediately dropped his pencil and held both his arms up in the air in joy. "Alright, now can we go?!" Arisa looked back to Tetsuya while she finished talking with Histoire.

She sighed but smiled as her current expression returned to her usual, carefree face. "Alright, alright, we can go now. Just get your stuff."

"'Kay." He started walking to the Nep sisters' room to get his stuff but he then paused his steps.

"Hey, Arisa, can I ask you something?"

"Hmm, what?" She questioned back at him while fixing her red, unbuttoned shirt.

He grabbed his knife from his pant's pocket and showed it to Arisa. "Arisa, how did you come to know this world? Also, what's with the pocket knife?" There were a lot of questions Tetsuya wanted to ask of his guardian. Was she really the one who told Histoire about him when he arrived? The pocket knife didn't do much. He remembered it being broken before, and when he took the time to fix it, he couldn't pinpoint what the problem was, so it was left in that broken state before now.

He also remembered Arisa and his younger sisters always going somewhere on the weekends leaving him alone for a while before coming back later with weird treats and materials.

He never asked as he thought it wasn't his business. Though one time he did wonder and was about follow them, but they had vanished as if into thin air.

"Ah." Was the only thing she said in a calm voice. "I guess I gotta tell you guys now." She stretched out her arms in the air.

"You're going to tell us now Arisa!?" The twins said excitedly as they appeared on Tetsuya's back.

"Oi." Tetsuya grunted but the twins didn't listen.

"The truth is… you guys… you guys are really…" Her bangs were covering her face as she said those words slowly till finally…

The whole family was waiting for the answer. Was it going to be consequential or something really good?

"You guys are just special, that's all!" Arisa happily said as she rubbed behind her head.

"…"

Then immediately, Tetsuya, Akako, and Aoko fell down anime style when they heard what their own guardian just perhaps stupidly said. Even Nepgear, IF, Compa, and Histoire would also agree with what the siblings were thinking of: _What a stupid line she said_. It somewhat reminded them of Neptune in a way.

"Stupid, old hag! What the heck!?" Tetsuya had gotten up and punched Arisa in the stomach in anger for what she said.

"Ow! Hey, it's true!" She said while writhing on the floor from Tetsuya's punch.

Tetsuya sighed, "I guess I'll have to find out myself as usual?" Arisa gave him a big smile.

"Of course!" She began to get up as Tetsuya gave another sigh, though it sounded aloof. That was when Arisa noticed something on the counter.

"Oh, you got guns already?"

"Yeah, Nepgear bought them." Tetsuya walked over to Arisa's side as they looked down on the guns. The older woman grabbed both of them and looked at the guns' details.

"…"

"Arisa?"

"I'm confiscating these."

"Wha! Why!?" He yelled as Arisa put them in her pockets and looked at Tetsuya with a stern face.

"A child like you is far too young to use adult stuff, Tetsuya." As the adopted mother and son began to argue, Akako and Aoko whispered to each other.

"I'm pretty sure she said that because she lost her guns too…"

"Yep, and even though she was the one who **taught** Nii-san how to use a gun, her pride won't admit it." The twins sighed at their guardian and older brother.

…

 **-Finally, arriving at Lastation's Guild-**

After Tetsuya and Arisa's argument died down, they went on their way to Lastation and had finally found the nation's Guild.

"Not much foot traffic here today…" IF claims as she looks around to see not that much people in the Guild.

"This place must be firmly under ASIC's control. Hmm… I hope we can get legit intel…"

"Oh, while you gather information, allow me to go and accept a few quests." Nepgear says before walking at the counter.

"I'll come too." Tetsuya walks beside Nepgear.

"Thank you, Tetsuya-kun." She said with a slight blush. Arisa, Akako, and Aoko gave the two smug faces while walking towards IF and Compa. Tetsuya glared at them.

The both of them reached towards the counter that was occupied by an accountant.

"Excuse me, I'd like to see what quests are available."

"Excuse me, I'd like to see what quests are available." Tetsuya looked towards the voice that mimicked Nepgear's words.

"Huh?" Nepgear said.

"Hmm?"

It was a girl. She looked to be around Nepgear's age but was a bit shorter than her and Tetsuya. She was a light-skinned girl with long black hair with most of it worn down reaching her chest with some of it worn in pigtails held with light blue and black ribbons. Her eyes were red. She was wearing a black dress with milky blue lining, an odd belt like piece with a bow behind it and a big circle with white lining connecting the dress to her collar. She wore long fingerless black gloves with milky blue coloring at the top and short boots with a similar color scheme. On the left side she can be seen with a small device that is most likely a cellphone with a cute, white cat face on it. Tetsuya did have to admit, the girl is cute.

'She looks to be about my age… Should such a young human girl really take on such dangerous work?' Nepgear thought as she looked at the girl who looked at her too.

"You two here to do quests, too?"

"Huh? Us? Y-yes, that's right." She stuttered for a moment. Tetsuya nodded to agree with Nepgear.

"Huh. Are sure about this? I mean, you guys are still just kids."

"Huh? B-but, you're a kid, too…" Nepgear said with a dismayed tone with Tetsuya looking a bit firmer at her comment towards them.

"I'm an exceptional exception. You have no idea how tough I am. But I need to get stronger so I can…" The girl closed her eyes as she thought about _that_ person.

"So you can…?"

"…" Tetsuya was still looking at the girl as Nepgear said that, as he remembered something as well.

He remembered _that_ as the girl's eyes opened as she began talking again _._

"Uh, nothing. Why are you looking for a quest here, anyway?"

"I wanted to help the people of this nation, and try to regain Shares for the CPUs."

When Nepgear said that, the girl looked irritated by her speech.

"Wow, aren't we serious? That speech makes you sound like a goody two-shoes honors student." Even Tetsuya had to admit, Nepgear was a bit too much of a good girl but he had no problems with that unless her confidence was broken.

"Wh-What the goodness is wrong with being serious about a serious problem?" Nepgear said back towards the girl.

"You could've said something more simply like 'I just want to get Shares' and bam." He said with a blank expression.

"N-not you too, Tetsuya-kun!"

"Hahaha! Sorry, sorry. I haven't talked to a girl my age in a while." The black-haired spoke again with a chuckle.

"Come to think of it, it's been a while for… No, I've never met a girl my age before. Everyone's older than me."

"Really?" Tetsuya asked curiously. Nepgear nodded her head towards Tetsuya in reply.

"Uh-huh… Well, my name is Uni. What's yours?"

"I'm Nepgear and this is Yuugita Tetsuya-kun." Nepgear introduced herself and Tetsuya, with him just waving a hello while taking out a chocolate Pocky stick and putting it in his mouth.

"I hope we can be friends, Uni-chan."

"Nepgear, huh? All right then, Nepgear, Tetsuya, since we're acquainted now, you wanna team up and complete a quest together?"

"You mean…you and me? And Tetsuya-kun too?" Nepgear questioned.

"Yeah. I always do this stuff alone, so it might be a good change of pace to try working with someone else."

"Okay, yeah! That sounds like fun. Let's go together!"

"I'll tell the others." Tetsuya said as he walked to them.

"Thank you, Tetsuya-kun!" Nepgear waved back at him as he walked away and began discussing with the others about taking the quests with Uni.

…

 **-Rebeat Resort-**

After spending some time at the Guild, the group went to Rebeat Resort as most of the quests listed this place as a location. The place had a blue ocean that spread as wide as they can see with circular paths.

"Wow, so you made a cute little friend while we were at the Guild?" Compa said as she looked at Uni and Nepgear.

"Oh. So you two weren't doing quests all by yourselves." Uni remarked as she began to smile triumphantly.

"I guess that's to be expected. I mean, those arms of yours are like, paper thin. But Tetsuya seems to know how to handle himself though."

Nepgear began to poke her index fingers together as she tried to explain, "N-Nuh-uh! I'm not weak… Well…okay, maybe a little, but…"

"Hey, hey. Don't tease her." Tetsuya said with Nepgear blushing at his kind words.

"T-Tetsuya-kun…"

"Yeah, yeah. Enough already. Don't start the self-deprecating nonsense again." IF said, stopping the conversation.

"In any case, there are eight of us, this quest will be a joke. Let's get it over with quickly, all right!?" Uni yelled out with a fist pump to the air.

"Yeah!" Everybody yelled out in excitement.

"Alright, since there's eight of us like Uni said, we should split up in two groups with four people in it." Arisa now says as she pointed a finger at them.

"First of all, Akako and Aoko, you'll go with IF-chan and Compa-chan. Me, Tetsuya, Nepgear, and Uni will be together. Alright, IF-chan, here are the quests you guys are going to do." She used the -Menu- and sent the information to IF's phone.

"Got it. Alright, let's go." The twins and Compa began to follow IF as they went towards a path veering to the left.

"Well, since that's settled let's get going!" Arisa also did a fist pump in the air and then began walking forward with her group.

…

The Underling watched as she saw the two groups going on their separate ways. "Tch! They already made it here… At this rate, they'll totally be getting in my way…" She said as she got an idea in her head.

Now with an evil smile, she said, "Fine. I'll finish them off this time, and I'll do it before they know what hit 'em."

…

Tetsuya's group had monster slaying quests. The objective was to beat some small monsters.

"So Arisa, what monsters are we hunting?" Tetsuya asked; he really didn't check the -Menu- because he was just too lazy to do so.

"Well, for us, we're hunting a few Babyvaders and Frog-in-the-boxes, but it shouldn't be a big deal since we only need to hunt a few." Arisa says as she looked in the -Menu- again just to check some stuff.

Uni and Nepgear were behind the two and were talking to each other.

"Ah, that's why they're traveling with you right?" Uni asked.

"It was supposed to be just me, IF-san, and Compa-san, but Histoire-san claims more people were coming which are of course Tetsuya-kun, Arisa-san, Akako-chan and Aoko-chan. I was really surprised!"

"Heeeh… Hmmmmm?"

"What's wrong?" Nepgear asked Uni.

Uni put a finger to her cheek. "No… it just feels like I heard about Arisa before or something."

"Really? Oh, IF-san said one time that she also knew Arisa-san as well." Nepgear had put a finger to her cheek as well.

"Hmmm… Hey Nepgear." Uni asked, changing the topic.

"What is it, Uni-chan?"

"Tetsuya… his appearance is just really…"

"Weird right?" Nepgear had actually said the word Uni was about to say.

"Y-yeah." She didn't want to be mean, but of course boys rarely (and not at all unless it's bleached) have pink as their hair color along with spiky hair and flame-like bangs on his right side. Plus, he looked really aloof, a bit cold as well.

But, Uni was surprised when Nepgear happily gave a warm smile and said, "Tetsuya-kun might be like that and stuff, but he's really nice!"

"…"

"Ah, but when Arisa-san, Akako-chan and Aoko-chan do something bad, he surprisingly has a short temper…" Nepgear lightly rubbed behind her head while she just laughed it off.

"Ah, hey guys, there they are!" Arisa pointed towards the monster she spotted: three, small packs of Babyvaders and another small pack of Frog-in-the-boxes.

"Well, everybody! Get ready!" Tetsuya got his twin blades out and Nepgear brought out her beam saber. Arisa had in her hand a regular-looking sword. Uni had a big rifle in her hand that was so big she had to use both hands.

Tetsuya was the first to attack and his first monster to attack was a Frog-in-the-box. The frog quickly dissipated from Tetsuya's swift attack.

"Nice, Tetsuya!" Arisa gave a big thumbs-up as she attacked a Babyvader with a fast slash. The battle was going at a very good pace as seemingly everybody was able to finish off the monsters with just a few attacks. Nepgear slashed two Babyvaders with a few quick slashes before moving as Uni intervened and shot them down with her rifle, making them disappear.

"Alright, just two more!" Uni yelled out as she pointed her gun at them. But then suddenly, one of them went viral.

"Gh! It went viral!" Tetsuya yelled as the frog undergone a small change by becoming a bit darker in color.

"Come on, a frog shouldn't be so hard to beat." Arisa said.

 **-1 minute later-**

"Kyaaahhh!" The frog was chasing after Arisa, trying to hit her with its box.

"…Arisa, really?" Tetsuya said in anger while Uni and Nepgear sweat-dropped.

"Hah!" Arisa immediately disappeared in a flash only to appear behind the frog, flipped her blade in a complete 360, caught it with ease, and sliced it with lightning-like speed.

" **Lacerate Score!"** That was the move named Arisa as she had let one more huge slash, ultimately destroying the monster in smithereens.

"T-that was so fast!" Uni said in shock as she stared at Arisa. Arisa just rubbed behind her head and smiled a bit awkwardly.

"No, no! It's just a normal move! Don't compliment me. Teehee!"

"I don't think that was a compliment Arisa…" Tetsuya said but she didn't listen as she rubbed her head.

 **-A few more minutes later-**

The group destroyed the last few monsters. Uni stretched her arms in the air as she yelled, "There, all done! What did I tell you, easy or what?"

"We finished so fast… Uni-chan, you really are strong."

"Same goes for you, Nepgear. Better than I thought, anyway. Nowhere near a match for me!"

"Aw, now you're flattering me."

…

IF's group had finished their assigned quests relatively around the same time as Arisa's group, so they met up for the time being.

Compa looked over to the two girls and smiled. "Heehee, those two are already such close friends." IF went to Compa's side as she also looked at them too.

"Looks that way. It's the first time I've seen a sincere smile from Nepgear since we rescued her."

"But I'm a bit jealous, too… I mean, I've known Gear-chan for way longer than that girl…" Akako and Aoko were going towards Tetsuya and Arisa but they couldn't help but to overhear IF and Compa's conversation. "Hey did Compa-chan just say 'girl'?" Akako asked Aoko.

"Somehow, I feel kinda weird and scared when I heard that." Aoko said, though they knew Compa didn't mean any harm.

"Oh, stop it. Don't get jealous over kids being kids."

"The hell you think you brats are doing. Having a picnic in the middle of a dungeon!?"

"Huh?" IF and Compa looked towards the source of the interruption.

…

"Gaaaaah!" IF and Compa's screams were loud enough for the other group to hear.

"IF-san? Compa-san?" Nepgear said in a worried tone.

"Heh. I got rid of the chaperones with barely any effort at all. Next up…you stupid little brats!" They recognized that voice. Yes, it was the Underling.

"Who's this?" Uni questioned as she glared at the Underling.

"I think her name is Underling. She's one of the ASIC's low-ranking peons." Nepgear explained with Tetsuya nodding and Arisa saying, or rather yelling, "Yeah! The annoying peon!"

"Argh! I told you to stop calling me that!"

"ASIC, huh? Stay back, Nepgear. Let me handle this one." Uni began to step forth as Nepgear did as well.

"No way, I'm fighting too. I can't let her get away with hurting my childhood friends!"

"Hey, quit with the yappin', wouldja? You caught me off guard last time, but now I'll beat you to…a…huh?" The Underling stopped her sentence as she noticed something strange happening to Uni.

A pillar of light surrounded Uni and as it covered her, Tetsuya had one thought running through his head.

'Uni is a CPU Candidate… Wait, does that mean that she's…!?' However, his musing was interrupted by Arisa.

"Hey, we've got to get to the twins' group first! We'll let Uni and Nepgear handle this."

"Haaaaaah!" Nepgear yelled as she transformed before Uni. After the transformation finished, she readied her gun blade as Uni lifted up her rifle, which was even bigger than before.

"Y-you're kidding me! What the hell, man!?" The Underling freaked out as she saw the two girls transforming in front of her own eyes.

Uni now had white hair which was tied as pigtails curled into ringlets while her bangs spiked outwards with the side parts shorter and very curled. Her eyes became bright green with the power symbol as the pupil like Nepgear. Her outfit resembled a black bikini with very tall boots and gloves. Her outfit had silver lining and circle-like shapes.

Nepgear was the first to attack the Underling with a slash. The Underling didn't have time to prepare as she was still in a state of shock. Before she could counterattack, Uni fired her rifle as it blasted green, bright bullets.

"Agh! Hey!" She yelled out. Finally, she did a counterattack as she swung her baton at Nepgear.

"Ah!" Nepgear shrieked as she got hit, but Uni avenged her by shooting her again with her huge rifle. The Underling tumbled over but as she was about to get up, Nepgear prepared her skill: Mirage Dance.

"Take this, **Mirage Dance**!" Nepgear swiftly ran towards the Underling, and with a quick swipe and a twirl, she swung her beam saber. As if she was a mirage, she disappeared for one second and…

*Slash!*

Came Nepgear's final slash. The Underling was badly hurt as she got up and said out loud.

"Dammit! This has to be considered cheating! Two CPU Candidates against one normal person!? Y-You'll pay!" The Underling cowardly ran away with a smoke grenade.

"I didn't know there were smoke grenades in Gamindustri." Tetsuya said as he looked a bit shocked.

"Hey, says the one who makes similar stuff." Arisa happily played off to Tetsuya, but he sighed.

"And says the one who either gets me the materials or leaves them on the floor." He retorted back to his adopted mother while the twins chuckled.

"Nepgear… You're a…" Uni looked towards Nepgear in shock.

"You too, Uni-chan…? Then you must be Lastation's CPU Candidate! I came here to look for you!" Instead of shock like Uni, Nepgear exclaimed in happiness.

"Tch!" Uni clicked her tongue, but Nepgear didn't seem to notice.

"Could you please help us? We want to save the CPUs—our sisters—and protect Gamindustri…" Nepgear went closer to Uni till…

"Don't come any closer!" She slapped Nepgear's hand away from her as she was about bring an arm to her.

"Huh?" The Planeptune CPU Candidate cluelessly said.

"Why? Why are YOU here and not my sister, huh!?" Uni yelled to Nepgear.

"Oh… That's…" Nepgear didn't know what to say.

"She didn't let me go along with her three years ago…"

"I could've saved them if I went! I could've done what you failed to do!"

"I…I'm really sorry… I couldn't help back then, but… I'm doing my best to rescue them now."

"Shut up! I don't want to ever see you or hear your voice again!" Uni began floating away fast from Nepgear as she didn't want to see her face.

"Wait, Uni-chan!" Nepgear began running after Uni but to no avail as the albino twin-tails was already going faster than her.

"Ouch… Damn Underling, ambushing us from behind like that…" IF cursed before putting an arm on her back to soothe the pain.

Compa cradled her head with her hands. "My head's gonna have a big bump… Huh? Wait, where'd Uni-chan go?"

"Uni-chan…" Nepgear whispered as Uni disappeared from her sight.

"Hey, hey! What happened!" Akako yelled out as she and Aoko finally caught up to the others.

"Well to be exact…" Tetsuya said. They explained what happened when they heard IF and Compa's screams.

"Woah… Uni-san is the CPU Candidate of Lastation…" Aoko put a hand where her mouth was in shocked.

"Well, we don't know yet…" Tetsuya slowly said as he looked over Nepgear and began walking towards her. Now he was close enough to see her face, it looked sad and depressed.

"Nepgear."

"…Ah! S-sorry, Tetsuya-kun…"

"No problem, you should transform back to your normal self, you'll lose a lot of energy right?"

"Y-yeah." She did what the pink hair boy said and was back to her normal, cute self.

"Hah… Well, we should go back to Lastation for now." Arisa sighs in stress. Despite the easy adventure in the wide Rebeat Resort, it became stressful for everybody as the Underling just barged in and while finding out Uni was a CPU Candidate was a great thing, she had ran away from anger.

…

 **-Lastation-**

"We aren't having any luck with finding the Mascot, are we?" Compa said in a disheartening tone. She was right, the people around Lastation didn't even seem to know where, or even know about, the Mascot.

"We asked around as much as we could. Maybe nobody here knows about it?" Nepgear started poking her index fingers together in her usual way.

IF sighed as she put one hand on her waist. "That'd be my guess. Man… No options left. We'll pay a visit to this nation's Oracle."

"Oracle? Oh, that's right. Every nation has someone like Histoire-san to help the CPU, right? Nepgear says.

"But Ai-chan, why didn't we go to see the Oracle first if you knew she'd be able to help?"

"Honestly, I still don't want to go. The Oracle here doesn't have the best reputation, so to speak."

"That reputation here is indeed terrible." Arisa sighed as she rubbed her head.

"What kind of reputation?" Tetsuya said.

"It's **that** kind of business." IF said but Tetsuya still remained clueless as to what 'that kind of business' meant but otherwise went along with the group to the Basilicom.

"…But there's one thing…." They knew that everybody was staring at them. More specifically, they were staring at the only boy in the group, Tetsuya.

"Look, mama, that guy has weird hair."

"Hey, don't point at him."

"Wow, look at the guy, he's pretty cute."

"But what's with the hair color, does he like pink?"

Tetsuya grimaced as people began talking about him; he had always wondered why it was always him that was the center of attention. From their reactions to him, this world probably have no guys with pink hair. But, the group ignored the people and went straight into the Basilicom.

 **-Lastation's Basilicom-**

"Pardon us." IF said as she opened the door to the Basilicom. Inside it resembled somewhat to Planeptune's Basilicom, in some way.

"Hello." Compa said after IF went in first.

There was only one person in the Basilicom, which was perhaps the Oracle.

"Welcome to Lastation's Basilicom. I am Jinguji Kei, the Oracle for this nation." The Oracle, though female, looked like a short boy with pale skin and short silver hair. Her eyes are a bright aqua blue color and she wore a near-formal black suit with gold lining any many buttons. She wore shorts instead of pants. Below the shorts she wore black high socks with white detailing and slip on black shoes with small blue and silver detailing on the top. Two long tails flowed from behind the jacket with blue coloring inside.

"And I already know that you have questions for me. Isn't that right, IF and Compa of Planeptune?"

"Huh? How do you know us…?" Compa spoke in shock to what Kei said.

"Intelligence gathering is business economics 101. I've gathered info on you both since your arrival."

"Definitely earned that reputation." IF said in amusement.

'Is this what IF meant by 'that kind of business'?' The pink hair boy thought as he looked back and forth between IF and Kei.

"Um, we're looking for your nation's Mascot… Do you have any information on where it might be?" Nepgear asked.

"Whether I do or don't is irrelevant. I'd first like to ask you how much my information would be worth to you."

"Its worth?"

"Of course. Properly exchanging information through an agreed-upon value system is the key to any business." Kei says.

"But we don't have a lot of Credits…" Compa said as she dug into her coin purse, looking for Credits.

"That's fine. Money is not required. Rather, I would exchange the information for a… personal favor."

"What kind of personal flavor?"

"Our nation is currently developing a very special item. All we lack are some crucial materials."

"Perhaps you've heard of these. We need a Treasure Gem and a good chunk of Hematite." When Kei said what the crucial materials were, IF and Arisa looked deeply shocked.

"What!? You realize how rare those are, don't you?" IF yelled out in shock.

"How rare are we talking…?" Nepgear asked.

"So rare that you won't find them at any regular vendor. There's no info about where to find them, either." IF explained to Nepgear about the rarity of the materials. "This is an incredibly one-sided trade!"

"How unfortunate. Then, I suppose our negotiation is at its end. Perhaps I misappraised my intel's value to you." Kei had put a 'smile' on her face.

"Tch… Slimy business weasel…" IF clicked her tongue while saying that.

"Understood. We'll go find them. If we do that, you'll tell us what you know about your Mascot, right?" Nepgear says.

"Well, there is one more thing that I want to know. I also need information on what happened three years ago, and about the recent rescue attempt."

"You even know about our going back to the Gamindustri Graveyard!?" Compa looked surprised.

"Circumstantial evidence. Call it a hunch. But how could I be wrong with Nepgear-san standing before me now?"

IF glared at Kei, "You knew about Nepgear all this time?"

"Well? Is Noire all right? Why is only Nepgear-san back?" Kei began questioning them.

"Well, Noire-san is still with the other CPUs, and—"

IF suddenly shut Nepgear's mouth with one of her hands. "Clamp that mouth shut, Nepgear. Business is all about equivalent exchange, isn't that right?" IF smirked at Kei. "Isn't it hypocritical of you to overstep the very 'rules' of business you imposed on us?"

Kei first had a silent shocked look but smiled and closed her eyes. "Huh. A valid point. My apologies. Very well, then I would like to ask you to find those materials first."

"After that, we can exchange all the information we possess. That is quite a bargain, you know."

"Okay, let's do that, then. We'll be going now."

"My, my. How amateurish of me to allow my emotions to lead a business negotiation…"

"Please be safe, Noire…" Kei silently whispered to herself.

…

 **-Outside of Lastation's Basilicom-**

After the group left the Basilicom, IF had a smile on her face, though she looked angry. "That Oracle really knows how to grind my gears! But I did have a pretty sweet comeback at the end, huh?"

"You were a super cool cucumber, Ai-chan!" Compa praised IF.

"Still, we need to find a Treasure Gem and Hematite. Any ideas on where to start looking, IF-san?"

"If I knew that, they wouldn't be as rare as they are. There was a rumor that some monsters collect rare gems…"

"Oh, I think I know." Arisa had her hand up as everybody looked at her. "I went to this place before and I managed to find one there."

"EhhhHHH!" Everybody yelled out.

"Hey, don't yell so loud. Besides I only found it by pure luck after beating a monster."

"So do you have one Arisa-san!" Nepgear said but when she did, Arisa suddenly looked the other way. Tetsuya had to pull her face hard to make her face them again.

"Looook at us, hagggggg…"

"Hey, rude!" She punched Tetsuya's head hard enough for a bump to appear.

"Okay, to be exact, I… ah…"

"So?"

"AlrightIlostitsoyeah, aha,let'sgogetthatTreasureGemandHematite!" Arisa began running ahead of them.

"…I think she lost it." Tetsuya said in a monotone, rubbing the bump he got from Arisa's chop, while the twins nodded in unison.

"Then… should we go and beat up every monster we see?" Nepgear said.

IF sighed. "That makes it sound so savage, but it's the only choice we've got." The group began chasing after Arisa to go to the place Kei said that the Treasure Gem would be at.

 **-?-**

"Ugh… I said some really nasty things to Nepgear, didn't I…? She's been through so much, too…" Uni, in her room, on her bed, was now regretting what she said to Nepgear. She didn't mean to, but three years had passed and her older sister still wasn't back. Nepgear was perhaps the very first female friend she ever made since she never really did the 'normal girl activities'.

"I get it. I was told to stay behind because I wasn't strong enough to be of help to the others… If I had gone, I would've made their jobs even harder, rather than easier…"

"But…But that's why I'm trying so hard to become way stronger!" Uni yelled to herself as she flipped herself so her back faced the ceiling.

"What'll I do if I run into Nepgear again…?" She stuffed her face in her pillow, and began thinking about how to apologize until she remembered Nepgear's earlier words.

"Tetsuya-kun might be like that and stuff, but he's really nice actually!"

Despite thinking that, she knew right now that that wouldn't solve anything. For now, she'll keep that thought in the back of her head.

* * *

 **AN: Wow! What a turn of events, well I'm pretty sure the group will figure something out, with Arisa's guidance perhaps but yeah.**

 **Arisa: Of course! I'm the best and mature of the group, count on me!**

 **Tetsuya: You forgot to mention the oldest part.**

 **Arisa: You say something?**

 **Tetsuya: Nothing.**

 **AN: I don't want a fight in the theater, cause the Editor probably get mad again.**

 **Arisa: Oh yeah, where is Editor?**

 **AN: Just looking at something in her computer as usual but we should close this chapter now.**

 **Everybody: Right!**

 **(Everybody left the room except Author)**

 **AN: Alright guys! I probably won't focus on the main chapters right now because I might write a Christmas chapter here.** **Sorry no events this time, I don't feel like it right now but perhaps for the next chapter.** **But like usual, see ya!**


	6. Holiday Chapter: Christmas!

**Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth: Generation of True Gods**

 **Holiday Chapter: Christmas Event! –Group following (stalking) Tetsuya Yuugita to the event.-**

 **AN and the Yuugita Family: Merry Christmas everybody!**

 **AN: I know it's past Christmas now and that I belated it due to me and Editor having problems...**

 **Tetsuya: Whatever, at least I get to have a feast.**

 **Arisa: You're always hungry anyway.**

 **Tetsuya: Hmph.**

 **Aoko: Well at least... we'll say the disclaimer now everybody!**

 **AN: Hit it!**

 **Yuugita Family: Zoarak13 does not own anything of Hyperdimension Neptunia but owns us and the fanfiction: Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth: Generation of True Gods.**

 **AN: It's been a while that I said an actual disclaimer, all right then! Get to reading to this holiday chapter, viewers!**

 **(Everybody leaves)**

* * *

 **-Hotel-**

"Man, today's Christmas…" Arisa put a hand on her head and sighed. They were still in Lastation; they were relaxing for today due to it being Christmas. Now, they were currently resting in a hotel. "Well at least the Author let us have fun for today!"

"…Arisa-san you just broke the fourth wall…" Compa said, giving off an awkward smile to Arisa.

Nepgear laughed but she stopped as a question mark appeared over her head. "Oh, Arisa-san, where's Tetsuya-kun?"

"Hmmm… I don't know. Oh! He's probably buying gifts for us!" She excitedly said as she clasped her hands together.

"Hmph, like I would." Tetsuya appeared at the doorway carrying plastic bags. "I was getting the food and stuff for the feast."

"Awwww…. Oh well, at least we got food!" Tetsuya rolled his eyes, placed the bags on the table, and began taking stuff out from them. Nepgear looked in surprise at the groceries.

"My goodness, you bought a lot of food!" Seemingly, it looked like he bought more than he thought (eight bags in total). He gave his usual deadpan stare at Nepgear. "Really? This is the usual amount of food that I bring to a feast."

"Eh?!"

…

 **-Lastation-**

Uni was walking around the city of Lastation after she was done with a quest. She opened her purse and threw the Credits she received in it.

"*Sigh* I only got this much, huh…"

She sighed again. "I need to get more to buy that new rifle they're selling at the gun store." As she walked around more, she saw people giving neatly wrapped gifts to each other. She had forgotten it was Christmas.

"Oh yeah… Today's Christmas." But Uni had no one to give a present to. She couldn't give to her sister since she wasn't here or to _her_ ; she would probably expect the present to come from a great business.

"The usual Christmas, then." She looked down but felt something cold on her cheek and looked up; she saw snow falling down from the dark sky. "It's snowing..." The twin-tailed girl didn't expect to be given presents nor did she have anyone in particular to give presents to… until she thought of someone.

"I could give it to… Yeah! I could apologize to her with this!" Uni balled her hand, raised it high to the sky, and yelled out, "Alright, time to do more quests!"

…

" **Merry Christmas!"**

"Ah man! It's been a long time since we had a Christmas feast." Arisa yelled out as she drank all of her apple juice. She along with the rest of the girls wore Santa hats with only Tetsuya wearing Christmas-styled headphones that was decorated with designs of reindeers, bells, and ribbons.

"Yeah… *gobble* *gobble* *slurp* *slurp.*" The word 'yeah' was the only word Tetsuya spoke before he gorged himself on the food.

"Woah… Tetsuya sure is a big eater." IF said in surprise as she lightly sipped her juice. Well, practically everybody was watching him gobble the food as they can see his stuffed cheeks.

"He's been like that since forever. If you ask me, he could probably eat all of the food here so you should eat as much as you can before he eats it all." Arisa looked at Tetsuya as he slurped on the spaghetti at a very fast pace. The entire group, except Arisa, Akako, and Aoko, were shocked to hear that and so they tried to quickly grab the food they wanted. Nepgear lightly ate her chicken as she looked up to see Tetsuya stop eating and get up. "Tetsuya-kun?"

"I forgot I gotta do a quest today. You guys stay here okay?" He got his gear and wore his usual headphones he worn before switching with the other one when he arrived in Gamindustri. It was a white colored headphones, it had a small black dragon swirling around a flaming sword. Before he was about to open the door, Arisa yelled out, "Why? It's Christmas, we should take a break you know."

"It's a special quest for Christmas apparently. It said that if someone completes its first… they'll get a lot of money!" The entire group could see glittering lights appearing in his blue eyes and all around him when he said that.

"Wait, why don't we all go together?" Akako said as she chewed on the chicken leg that was in her mouth.

"Uh… it's a one-person event, no teams." He then quickly head out and closed the door. Despite what he said, it didn't seem a very convincing excuse. That's what Arisa thought as a plan formed in her head, bringing an evil smirk to her face.

"Hooooh… We should tail Tetsuya!" The woman yelled out with the twins agreeing.

"B-but Tetsuya-kun said to stay here…" Nepgear tried to protest but to no avail as Arisa gave a devious smile to her as she put a hand around her shoulder. "Heyyyyyy… if we tail him, he might actually buy a gift for all of us… and the quest he was talking about, he could use the money to get something for you, you know." Nepgear deeply blushed from what Arisa said.

…But what if she was right? Could he be using the money to get her something that'll probably be more special than the ones they're going to get? They got presents for each other already, but Tetsuya was the only one who didn't have a gift for them yet. Her mind began thinking up different scenarios…

But she stopped and blushed deeply. "N-no I shouldn't think of that! Me and Tetsuya-kun aren't even in a relationship yet!"

Arisa smirked over what she said. "Then alright, let's get going!" She dragged Nepgear with the others following as IF sighed in an aloof manner.

…

Uni looked over the -Menu- to read the description of the quest she took, which so happened to be the same Christmas-special quest that Tetsuya was currently doing. The quest was about getting to a monster in a deep forest near Lastation. Though very rare, it was very easy to find. The monster was actually very harmless; no one knew what it was but it was said to be located under a huge tree.

"Ohhhhh! This special quest has a lot of Credits; I could get the rifle and the present together!" She closed it down and looked up to see a sign that was placed near the entrance of the forest. The sign said in glowing, floating letters.

 **Christmas Event Quest! Exclusive only on December 25th! First one to find the legendary animal gets the reward!**

Uni stared in awe before she noticed an attendant sitting in a stand that had a sign on the top saying, "Sign up now!"

"Are you signing up for the Christmas Event, miss?" The attendant asked as Uni began walking to her.

"Yes."

"Alright, you are to pass through the gate right there. But first, sign your name on this paper." The attendant pointed towards the big gate and Uni signed her name on the paper.

"Have fun hunting!" Uni looked at the gate before departing into the deep forest. Unknowingly, she didn't know the next person who would sign up next was a certain boy she knew.

…

The group was tailing Tetsuya before they lost him. He had magically disappeared out of thin air when they followed him to a park. They were sitting on a bench to rest for the time being.

"Jeez! Thanks a lot Arisa, we lost Nii-chan now!" Akako pointed at Arisa while the woman made an angry face and pointed at her too.

"Hey, we were following him! You guys were too slow catching up and I had to wait for you!" They began fighting and berating each other.

"H-hey! I'm pretty sure Tetsuya-kun is going to the Christmas Event, so it should be easy to spot, right?" Arisa and Akako stopped fighting as they wiped off dust from themselves. Arisa sighed.

"No way, I'm pretty sure they made it hard for us to fin-"Arisa was about to finish her sentence when she was interrupted by a loud speaker.

" **Everybody! The Christmas-only event is at the forest you've seen appear unexpectedly. Go to the attendant and sign your name, so you can participate! Have fun!"** The announcement resounded throughout Lastation.

"…" Arisa looked expressionless before crawling into her corner of shame, deep in the cold snow.

"A-Arisa-san… It isn't your fault, I'm pretty sure some people wouldn't have noticed."

"Um, they would notice if they had a notification about the four nations having their own Christmas-only events. That notification is sent to their phones." When IF said that, Arisa shrunk in embarrassment.

"Arisa-san looks worse…" Compa said. They had to carry the depressed Arisa to the forest, checking from time to time to see if she recovered.

…

Tetsuya had signed up for the quest and passed through the gate. He walked and saw some people in the woods, though they didn't seem to notice him at all. Despite the snow and the cold weather, he seemed perfectly fine with his current clothes.

"Wow… This forest is huge alright." He looked up to see almost all the trees matching up together in height. "Well, no one said this was going to be easy anyway…" He began walking fast until he heard something. It was the sound of gun shots.

Curious, he began running towards the sound, until he saw someone with a black rifle shooting at a couple of guys before they dropped to the ground, unconscious. He could hear one of them groan in pain before falling unconscious. He hid between the bushes and looked at the person. It was a girl. She put her rifle on her shoulder and said, "Hmph, these guys are no big deal, I'll get to the monster before anyone does." The pink-haired man knew this voice. "Uni?" He spoke her name without thinking.

"Who's there!?" She yelled out, now pointing the rifle to the direction of the sound. Then, she saw a human-shaped shadow appearing and pointed at him until he finally revealed himself. "It's just me Uni." Tetsuya calmly said, raising his hands up in defense. Uni looked shocked as she saw Tetsuya. "W-w-what are you doing here!?" She pointed at him as his stare turned deadpan.

He still had his hands raised in an attempt to not anger her. "What I am doing here? I'm doing the special quest obviously."

"I-I know that but why?" She raised her voice higher than before. He thought as he put a finger on his lips to think.

'Should I tell her I'm doing it for the money? Or for food buffets? Should I tell her 'that'?' He thought as he looked away until he finally thought of something to use as a bluff.

"It's actually for a present that I want to give to someone." He said with a straight face. When he said that, Uni slightly became a bit shocked and slightly blushed for some reason. "Oh, for someone, huh?" She nodded her head many times. Tetsuya suddenly had a figurative lightbulb above his head as he thought of an idea and he said again with a straight face. "Hey, Uni. You want to work together?" She looked surprised before lowering her rifle. "Work t-together!?"

He simply nodded at her response. Finally, she calmed down and looked away from Tetsuya. "O-okay, but I'm just helping you just for this one occasion okay!" He nodded again and said, "Thanks Uni, I owe you one." Together, they began walking deeper into the forest.

…

"Pheeewww… We finally found it, dang it! But, there's one thing that's bothering me", Arisa said, panting as she and the others finally found where the event was being hosted at. Arisa had finally recovered and began bouncing in joy once again. She stopped, though, as she saw an enormous amount of people in a line signing their names on the paper one at a time.

"Really? Now we have to wait in a line! How did Tetsuya manage to get there!?" She was pissed. They were currently at the end of the line and it looked like it would take more than just fifteen minutes to get just to the middle of the line.

"Hey calm down, lady." The man behind her said. He looked buff and strong but Arisa was stronger than him and she intimated him by shouting scarily. "Then why don't you just LEAVE?!"

"Eeekk!" The man screamed like a girl before getting out of the line. Arisa looked satisfied and didn't look angry anymore. The group sighed in relief.

…

Tetsuya and Uni had wiped out some people and monsters that tried to attack them. Uni was cold; she was shivering as she put her hands on her shoulders and began rubbing them.

"S-s-s-so c-c-c-c-col-l-ld…" She muttered out. She felt her lips beginning to dry out due to the cold weather. She looked at Tetsuya, and in complete shock, he was completely fine unlike her.

'H-how can he withstand this goddamn weather?!' She thought, but she didn't notice she began to slow down as the cold had finally gotten to her. But what really shocked her when she stopped was that a piece of cloth was thrown over her head.

"Eh?" She grabbed the cloth and saw that it was the outer shirt that Tetsuya was wearing. He sighed and looked back at Uni. Tetsuya crossed his arms and said, "You know you could've brought a jacket too. I mean, look at the dress you're wearing."

"I-it's no problem, I can-"

*Fooosshhhh*

Very cold air swept through the dark sky, the forest, and the snow. She began violently shivering and held the shirt tightly.

"Kkkkkhhhhhhhh…!" Before she reacted, Tetsuya was in front of her and took the shirt from her.

"H-hey-"He went behind her already but she didn't see because her eyesight was being blurred by the wind. First, he put the shirt on her shoulders before putting one arm in one sleeve and doing the same to the other arm. Then, from a bag that seemingly came out of nowhere, he grabbed his school jacket and did the same thing he did with his outer blue shirt.

"W-what are you doing!?" The man merely just stared at her and bluntly said, "I'm just keeping you warm. You being all tough and all, you really are just like a typical girl you know."

"I-I-"She couldn't say anymore as her lips dried up to the point that couldn't speak much anymore. She began to feel a bit warmer now.

"Wa-"Tetsuya lifted her up and placed her on his warm back. "Hey! What do you think you're doing!?" He looked back at her. "You're too slow so I have to carry you. It's easier right?"

"I told you I can hand-"When Uni attempted to say another word, another blast of cold air came and she began shivering and as a result, she held onto him tightly on his back. "Alright then, let's go!" Tetsuya said as he began picking up his speed.

Uni couldn't believe it. She was a Goddess, a CPU Candidate to say. How could she be bothered by this weather while a mere human like Tetsuya who was carrying her, felt really warm. Was he wearing a lot of hot packs? But even with a lot of hot packs, he couldn't be this warm. She began to nod off before falling completely asleep.

Being asleep, she didn't even noticed Tetsuya engaged in a battle. He was holding her onto his back with one arm, so he had only one arm to fight. It wasn't a big deal as it was just one Delinquent Cat. He managed to grab one of his twin blades as he dashed towards the cat-like creature.

Quickly and immediately, he used **Strike Dash** on it and the sword came back to his hand. He whistled, staring at the place where the creature disappeared before putting away his weapon and began walking once more.

…

Nepgear and the others were completely lost. They didn't have a map since that would be considered cheating in the event. And it was taking too long for them because it was all due to the twins' and Arisa's argument which had been going on for five minutes. The path they were on had split into two paths: one path going to the left and the other going to the right. The family was arguing about which of the two paths to take. Some adventurers tried to ambush them but Arisa pointed at them with both of Tetsuya's guns and the twins used slingshots they own that had stink grenades. IF was still tired and didn't want to stop them.

" **It's totally the left path!"** Akako and Aoko said together, pointing at the left road.

"Na-ah! It's the right!" Of course, Arisa pointed at the right road. As they were still arguing about which path to take, IF sighed as she facepalmed.

"This might take a while…"

"Ahahahah…" Nepgear lightly laughed. Compa just looked delighted and happy and was supporting each side.

…

Walking through the forest, the Underling was also lost as well. She cursed and kicked at the snow in anger. "Damn! Why do I have to do this crappy quest!?" The Underling kept walking, talking, and cursing at the same time. "Whatever, the boss said if I do this quest, I'll get ASIC a lot of money and get a promotion at the same time!" She excitedly said as she lifted her arms up. But she remembered something else her boss said.

Flashback…

"Linda, remember if you fail this special quest…" The Underling gulped and was shaking from top to bottom. The back of the boss's chair was facing her and as usual, she couldn't see her face.

"Don't worry… I won't demote you to trash. Nothing bad will _really_ happen." Linda looked happy but her expression changed when the boss said something else, in a very conceding and cold voice.

" **There will be a major punishment.** _ **Understand?"**_

Flashback ended…

The Underling shivered as she remembered the scene. She shook her head and began running, "There is no way I'll fail this!" As a result, the Underling's ego finally rose up for once.

…

Uni was still asleep, letting out light, cute snores. Tetsuya was still walking. He had met more adventurers as they tried to ambush him and take his stuff. He read in the event notification that killing someone would immediately have you kicked out. But, he was strong enough to handle them. He still didn't know how his strength came out; was it due to all the training he had?

His thoughts were brought to a stop when he spotted something. He slightly crouched and hid between bunches of bushes. He saw Arisa and the others. He clicked his tongue, "I had a feeling they would follow but I know Arisa and the twins made them follow me… It's better to not get spotted. Besides, Arisa would probably yell and laugh at me." He stood straight up and began walking towards another direction.

He encountered nothing so far for the past few minutes. No ambushes from adventurers or monsters. He then saw something appear from far away between the trees and rocks. He sneaked, hid himself behind a tree, and then took a slight peek. He would not believe it.

It was a stag. It was huge, compared to its normal size, and had antlers that looked like tree branches, though they looked sharp enough to stab if rammed against something. Its nose was bright red and glowing.

"Wooow, now that was very easy to find for a very rare creature." He gave a monotone stare at it, but it suddenly began galloping away. "Did it notice us? Dang, I guess we gotta get going. Hold tight, Uni." Tetsuya began running faster than he did as he gave chase.

…

Arisa sighed as she walked. Finally, the group, after a vote, decided to go on Arisa's chosen path. She sighed because she was tired. Actually, the entire group was exhausted. It was mainly due to the cold weather. "Maaaannnnn, this is taking longer than I thought." Arisa put her hands on her waist while making an annoyed face.

"I'm pretty sure we're getting closer Arisa-san…" Nepgear tried to comfort her but Arisa looked like she hadn't listened until she had dramatic tears coming out of her eyes.

"Nepgear…" And then she did it. She cried, hugging Nepgear while the group can see waterfall tears falling. While the adult woman still did that, Compa looked and spotted something.

"Ah, look over there!" She pointed towards something as she yelled out. The group looked in shock to see a deer or stag whatever, galloping away.

"I'm pretty sure that's our target!" Aoko said as she began running along with Akako. The group followed them as Arisa finally stopped crying.

…

Panting with a small amount of exhaustion, Tetsuya ran and ran, jumping over bushes and big rocks that got in his way.

"*Pant!* *Pant!*….. MAN!" He let out a scream. "Stags really do run fast, do they? Not for long." He began going full speed like how he did what he tried to save Nepgear from the huge Dogoo.

Uni felt shaking and began opening her eyes. "Mmmmhhhh….Huh?" The pig-tailed girl opened her eyes to see Tetsuya running.

"Hey, Tetsuya! What are you doing?" She said, he didn't look at her but he heard her and said, "Ah Uni, you're awake. *Pant* I'm chasing the animal we're supposed to find!" She looked shocked, partly because he found it but mostly because she fell asleep. How long did she sleep for? Now she felt useless, because despite wanting to help him, he did all the work by himself. She clicked her tongue in disdain and shame but Tetsuya didn't hear her as he kept focused on the huge stag.

He slowed down. "I think it's stopping now." They both saw the stag go to a tree that looked different from the rest.

The two looked at it and "Woooooohhhhh…" they said in unison. The tree was sparkling in a variety of colors. How could no one notice this? Maybe you had to follow the stag after all; it was in the description of the quest.

"I think we found it." Uni said as she got off of Tetsuya's back. She felt warmer now due to her lying on his back and wearing his clothes, though she still felt a little cold.

"Are you okay? You sure you can stand?" Tetsuya said with concern in his voice. Uni blushed as she was taken aback and made a "tsundere" pose.

"I'm okay! I-I didn't need your concern or anything." She closed her eyes tightly.

"…"

Tetsuya made a monotone face as he stared at Uni until he made a palm, balled his other hand, and put it on the palm, with an idea popping in his head.

"Oh… I think this what they call a "tsundere" when they do these poses such as not looking at the person or trying to help them for only one occasion but they really want to…. right?" He kept his posture when Uni looked back at him and became furious at what he said towards her.

She pointed at him with red cheeks. "A 'tsundere'!? I am not a 'tsundere' mister!"

"Yeah, you are."

"Am not!"

"Yes."

"Am not!"

"Yes."

"AM NOT!"

"…Am not…"

"YES!"

"So you do admit you are a 'tsundere'." Uni had steam emanating from her entire body, no longer feeling the cold air that swooshed by, as she let herself feel shame for what she did. "W-whatever! We should get the quest done!"

"Okay, okay."

"Ah, it's Tetsuya!" They heard a female voice that Tetsuya knew very well. It was Arisa and her group running towards them.

"Arisa! And the others!" They stopped when they saw Uni with him. Nepgear was the first to respond, "Uni-chan? Are you doing the special quest with Tetsuya-kun?"

"Well, I'm just helping him so we can split the money, that's all!"

"No, you said you just wanted to help." Uni was taken aback again. If she remembered right, she definitely did say that.

"Y-yeah, I'm just helping him." She flipped her hair and did her "tsundere" pose once again. The twins lightly laughed as they knew she was saying stuff that a typical "tsundere" would say. Everybody was talking when they heard something they never expected to hear here.

"Huh, you guys are here?!" They looked in disdain towards the direction of the voice. The Underling was there in the bushes.

"Geh! The Underling is here again!" Akako yelled. They pretty much knew she would be here for the reward.

"Let's take her out already so we don't have to worry about her later." Quickly, everybody took out their weapons.

The Underling clicked her tongue. "Heh, don't think I came alone, come on out monster!" Two Babyvaders appeared beside the Underling. She smirked and arrogantly said, "How about that now, you-…" She was caught off guard when Uni shot one monster and Arisa shot the other monster using one of Tetsuya's guns.

"Hey! I took time preparing for this!"

"Well, you need to prepare better next time. Everybody get her!" Arisa shouted. Unable to escape quickly enough, everybody pummeled her till she was flung to the sky.

"I only had a short part hereeeEEEEE!" Then she was gone; a bright shine glowed in the sky signifying how far she was flung.

"She definitely did have a short part here."

"Well, she is a minor antagonist." IF and Arisa said to each other, but Tetsuya was dumbfounded at what they were saying.

"Huh, what are you talking about? Isn't she just a person that keeps getting in our way?"

"Yeah, but at least let's finish this quest."

Tetsuya sighed. _Oh well_. "Hey, Uni…" He turned back to see Uni gone.

"Huh? Where's Uni-chan?" Nepgear said. Tetsuya rubbed his head and looked down to see a note along with his clothes sprawled messily on the ground. He picked up his clothes as he read the note.

 **I'm sorry if I left abruptly. I wanted to help you but I was weak. So next time, when we meet, I'll show you how much stronger I gotten! I hope you get the money! -Uni**

He continued staring at the note before giving a small smile, folding the note into a small square, and putting the note in his pocket. The blue-eyed man placed his school blazer in his bag before putting his blue shirt back on. He quietly said, "…But I don't get why she ran away though. She's a bit weird, isn't she?"

"Hey! Look at the buck." The stag went towards the tree and grabbed something from it. Then, it walked towards them. They saw that the stag had a huge bell that fit in its mouth before it began ringing it. As the bell rung, a siren was heard.

" **The event is finished everybody! A winner has gone and found the creature! The event is now complete; this area will vanish tomorrow. Everybody did a great job even if you guys didn't find it; the winner will present themselves in front of the gate."** The speaker announced out loud. The group found themselves teleported to the entrance with a group of people.

The same woman from the stand stood on a big podium and had a mic in front of her. "Now that everybody is here, we should announce the winner!" She pointed towards them as spotlights shone on them. "So which one of them is the winner here!?"

Tetsuya raised his hand. "To be exact..."

"My group and I discovered it together." The group was shocked. In the first place, he was the one who found it with Uni. The announcer yelled out, "We have more winners than I thought! They get the reward. Congratulate them everybody!" The crowd began clapping and some were yelling out "whoo hoooo!".

The entire group got up to the podium. Nepgear went next Arisa and whispered to her, "Um, Arisa, why did Tetsuya-san say that even though he was the one who found the stag first?" Arisa gave her a smirk. "That's how Tetsuya is, you know." The lavender-haired girl smiled softly at him, "Yes, he's so kind-hearted."

"Well to be exact, he has agoraphobia."

"I see, he has- wait, what!?"

"He just said that so he wouldn't have to face the crowd by himself."

"I-I didn't know that…" Tetsuya heard their whispered conversation and glared at Arisa as he gave her hand signs.

" **That is not true; don't make stuff up to her!"** Arisa smirked again. They got a check as their reward. To their surprise, it was a check for 150,000 Credits! Then after that, the whole family began fighting over the check until IF took it and gave it to Nepgear to keep just in case. The family including Tetsuya looked all depressed until Compa and Nepgear cheered them up again.

…

 **-Hotel-**

They went back to the hotel after that exhausting but fun event. Arisa lay down on the bed, rolling around. "Ahhhhhh, that was very tiring."

Aoko suddenly suggested something as she looked like she forgotten something. "Hey! We didn't open our presents yet!" Everybody looked shocked. Yes, they had forgotten to open the presents but they were tailing Tetsuya as he had left right after the feast.

Arisa got up and stood on the table, putting both arms on her waist before yelling. "Then let's open them!" They had put the presents near the Christmas tree they had placed in the hotel. The first one to open a present was Compa; she got a new syringe for her to attack monsters with due to it being big like her other syringes and for her patients who are going to suffer from it. IF got a new phone that was a navy color similar to Tetsuya's blue shirt. She looked so happy everybody can see her loving it while smooshing it towards her face. Akako and Aoko got matching bracelets while Arisa got a new sword she could use other than the one she had. Finally, it was Tetsuya's and Nepgear's turns but Tetsuya went first. He unwrapped the present and opened it.

"Another headphone set?" He said while looking at Arisa. She explained, "But the old one you keep wearing is getting a bit beat up, right? So I thought you should get a new one!" He simply sighed before taking out the present and setting it down on the table.

"I told you I don't need a new one… I like my old one." Everybody was quiet but Arisa smiled and said to him, "Okay, okay, but you still wear different types anyway."

"Yeah, yeah, let's just get to Nepgear's present." Straight away, they surrounded Nepgear as she had the last present. She opened it and saw the thing that made her really excited. It was the new robot they were selling at Lastation.

"Uwahhh… This is the new robot they're selling at the Lastation window shops. This new robot has such a smooth texture, along with these bulky spots. Everything about it is so cool!" Nepgear began to say more gibberish till IF stopped her.

"Yes, yes. We know what you're going to say. By the way, who got us our presents? Our names are shown here except for the sender's."

"Oh, that's Tetsuya. He bought all these presents for you." Arisa said that as if it didn't surprise her and the twins.

"…"

"…"

"…"

The girls were still quiet and didn't say anything until they screamed. Tetsuya rubbed his head and sighed, before saying, "Don't let me take all the credit. You also helped too, along with Akako and Aoko."

She laughed. "But you were the who suggested it." The twins also laughed and Tetsuya became angered from their laughing.

"Wait, didn't you guys buy yourselves presents too?" Akako questioned as she looked at Nepgear, Compa, and IF. They were silent again before quickly exiting the door and getting their stuff. Arisa laughed at their forgetfulness.

"We already got our own so we don't need to but I'm surprised they forgotten."

"It's probably due to work, you know, Shares and ASIC."

"Yep, we should just relax now." Tetsuya nodded with the twins. They sat down and looked out the windows of the hotel and noticed how pretty the stars looked tonight. It was a great night even if the girls were looking for presents for each other.

* * *

Special Event 1: Uni

 **-Lastation Basilicom-**

Uni: Hahhh... I didn't get to apologize after all... I didn't even had the guts to for some reason! Hmph, next time we'll meet, I tell them!

-Walks and looks at counter-

Uni: ...?

?: **I know this isn't really a Christmas present that it would benefit for a girl but you're you so I got you this.**

Uni: T-this... the new rifle the gun store was selling at! ...Jeez, she really does hide herself does she?

* * *

Special Event 2: Histoire

Histoire: ...Somehow it feels lonely here.

-Door slam!-

Arisa: Hello, Histoire!

Histoire: Wah! Arisa-san! What are you doing here?

Arisa: Heh, what am I'm here? To give your present of course!

-Gives Histoire the present-

Histoire: F-for me?

-Opens it, reveals a purple bookmark-

Histoire: A bookmark?

Arisa: Well, it's kinda hard to tell what you like but since you're riding on a tome I thought a bookmark... well that's mostly Tetsuya for you.

Histoire: Tetsuya-san got this for me?

Arisa: Well you could say that, but we bought it together. Well then, see ya!

Histoire:... *Bright smile*.

-To Tetsuya-

Tetsuya: Achoo!

* * *

 **Arisa: That was a fun holiday chapter!**

 **AN: Well, there is some people that like or don't like Christmas but yeah it's fun to make a holiday chapter for some time.**

 **Akako: Author, are you going to do a New years chapter?**

 **AN: Nah, do it next um, 2017 I guess. I won't do some special events again or Lily ranks on this chapter.**

 **Tetsuya: ...It's a big pain in the butt.**

 **AN: Yep. (Looks at the clock on the wall) Well it looks like it's time to go now. We'll see you viewers later in the next main chapter!**

 **(Everybody Leaves Theater)**

 **-Update- (Author here)**

 **AN: Damn it... I totally forot to actually put special events, I'm sorry guys about saying I won't do special events. When I remembered I said the screw it, I'm gonna make special events! I'm very sorry! Oh one thing... I wanna ask about you viewers, tell me... is the story boring still... I don't want to discontinue but I'm just say. Review it or send a private message okay. Alright bye!**


	7. Special Chapter: Tsunako's Birthday

**Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth: Generation of True Gods**

 **Special Chapter: Tsunako-san's Birthday!**

AN: Hello, everybody! Today is a very special, short chapter, unlike the holiday and main chapters… It revolves around the artist who did the art designs for Hyperdimension Neptunia series art design and characters!

It is-

"Tsunako's birthday!" The Yuugita family said out loud, cutting the author's voice off.

AN:…Hey, I thought I said I would do the announcement…

The author said with a monotone voice. Arisa patted her on the back.

"Come on Author! Today is a very special day, well one day late to be exact, but whatever."

"Plus, the title says it anyway so what's the big deal?" Tetsuya says with the same tone of the Author.

AN: Okay….

The Author pouted.

AN: But anyway. Tsunako's birthday was on January 28. So this is a belated birthday chapter. I didn't really think about posting a chapter like this but after seeing a few people doing it, I decided to post one for her.

"It'd be so nice if she drew us…" Aoko sighed wistfully. The Author sighed.

AN: No way, it's not possible. This story so far doesn't really have a lot of chapters. Like I said in my profile and in the last chapter, the story is a little boring but don't worry! I'll spice it up! …Somehow.

"Hey, are Nepgear, IF, Compa, and Histoire coming?" Tetsuya said to the Author.

AN: Mmmmm… Maybe not, I mean they are official characters unlike you guys. So I think they have their own thing.

"Uhhh…" Everybody pouted.

"Huh? Hey Author I just noticed something." Akako said.

AN: Hm? What?

"The way you're speaking is different from ours whenever we speak in the story."

AN: Obviously, because I'm the special one here.

The Author looked triumphant.

"Yeah, only in this story and your other stories. But in real life: no, unfortunately." Tetsuya criticized.

AN: Ouch! That hurts my heart, dude!

"Well, let's go to the others now! Then, we go to the party!" Arisa yelled out with a fist to the air.

""" **Yeah!"""** Everybody said and began leaving towards the exit.

AN: I'll be coming but I tell this to you viewers. They'll be something new in the next chapter you guys will see but it's no big deal. Anyway, I gotta go, see ya viewers, and Happy Birthday Tsunako! Well if you can read.

The Author leaves.


	8. Lastation Part 2: Our Promise and Past

**Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth: Generation of True Gods**

 **Chapter 5: Lastation Part 2: Our Promise and Past**

 **AN: Hello, viewers! A main chapter has finally been posted! The Yuugita family aren't here with me, but as one of the main sponsors of this story, I have to be here!**

 **Tetsuya: *Munch!* *Gobble!* *Gobble* we're also the mains too you... *Munch* know.**

 **AN: It's rude to eat while you talk, go back to the cafeteria!**

 **Tetsuya: Yeah, yeah. (Leaves)**

 **AN: Ahem! So like said, read this chapter, viewers! (Didn't have that much to say anyway.)**

* * *

 **-?-**

"….So far it's gotten a little boring hasn't it?"

"Hm….. But! If I did that… wait, but I'll probably get caught though… hmph, whatever!"

"Hmhmhmhm… Ahahahahahahahahahah!... *Choking noises!* *Choking noises!*"

"…"

"…"

"…"

"…Ha….. That was close, but… MAN! This strawberry short cake is the best!"

…

 **-Endless Zone-**

From what Arisa had said, she had found a Treasure Gem in a place called Endless Zone in Lastation. They had been walking around for half an hour to look for it.

"Hey Arisa, are you really sure the Treasure Gem is here?" Tetsuya lazily said as he walked around the place.

"Yes, yes, I remember I got it from here." More specifically, Arisa had found the gem embedded in the arm of a dead Ancient Dragon.

"But still, nothing at all…" A disappointed Compa said.

"C'mon. If they were this easy to find, that Oracle would have them already." IF replied.

"I guess running around without directions will get us nowhere fast…" Nepgear quipped.

"…" Nepgear sighed and closed her eyes. Apparently, there was no Ancient Dragon here.

"Why all the glum faces?" Nepgear opened her eyes to see a woman who had suddenly appeared in front of them.

She had fair skin and she looked to be almost around Tetsuya's height. She had orange eyes and short, rusty brown red hair styled similarly to Kei's with a silver headband on top.

Her clothes consisted of a white tank top with a brown belt-like segment on the top and bottom underneath a blue and white jacket with gold accents. Her skirt is white with thick strips of blue in the center and worn with a brown belt with gold details and a small orange and black pouch attached to it. She wore black fingerless gloves, black stockings, and blue boots with white, black, and gold accents.

"Huh? I'm sorry, who are you?" Nepgear asked.

"Whoops! Where are my manners? I'm Falcom. I'm your average, everyday adventurer, as you can see."

"I also have this nasty habit of wanting to meddle in the affairs of troubled folks like you."

"Wow, an adventurer! Ai-chan, maybe she knows something. Can't hurt to ask, right?"

IF put a hand on her chin before looking up. "I guess not. We're fresh out of alternatives."

Nepgear was the one to ask the question towards her. "Um, so, we're looking for two gems—Hematite and a Treasure Gem—but we have no idea where to look…"

Falcom also put a hand on her chin. "Treasure Gem and Hematite, huh? Never heard of Hematite, but I know the Treasure Gem isn't around here. I think I heard more about the one in Planeptune. Was it Virtua Forest? A gem-collecting monster, maybe…?"

"Are you serious!?" IF yelled towards her in surprise.

Arisa put a hand on her chin, "I did hear a type of monster like that in Planeptune, but I didn't think it would be true…"

"Well, we don't know if the rumors are true but let's stick to it." Tetsuya said. Arisa nodded her head.

"I'd take you there if I could, but I'm already in the middle of some other errands. Sorry about that." Falcom rubbed her head.

Nepgear bowed in sincerity. "Oh no, that information is plenty! Thank you so much."

"Cool. Your eyes are all full of life again, so my work here is done. Perhaps we'll meet again. Good luck!"

"Thanks a bunch!" Compa also bowed as well.

IF put her hand on her head, thinking, "How unexpected. I never would have thought it would be in Planeptune."

"Let's hurry over and find out if she was right!"

"…Yeah." Tetsuya replies.

"Hooray!" Compa and the twins yelled out in happiness.

…

But the group didn't know that a certain someone had followed them to Endless Zone. That "certain someone" was the Underling, the one working for ASIC. She gave a dark snicker.

"Uh-huh… Going back to Planeptune, are they? Heh, heh, heh… Just you wait. Our super-secret anti-CPU weapon will blast you all to dust…!"

…

 **-Virtua Forest Depths-**

Returning back to Virtua Forest Depths, the group managed to avoid some monsters till they reached the innermost depths of the forest. Arisa was leading this time as she knew what the monster was. While Arisa did, the rest of the group looked around for small monsters that would ambush them. IF took this time to scoot over to Tetsuya, who noticed.

"Hey."

"Yo." He put a chocolate Pocky stick on his mouth. After he said that, a moment of silence came between them. A few seconds later, Tetsuya responded again. "Is there something you need?"

"…" It looked like IF was trying to find the words but couldn't, though Tetsuya patiently waited. After another few seconds, she finally responded, "…Hey… Can you not tell anybody of this?"

"Just as long as it's not something important… fine."

"Thanks." IF looked relieved as she sighed.

"When Arisa said that I tried to jump to protect Nepgear too… she was right." The Guild member looked slightly down. Tetsuya still patiently let her continue the conversation.

"I felt helpless when I saw Nepgear about to be attacked by that Underling… it reminded me three years ago when Nep-ko and the other CPUs got captured… of how weak I was."

"…" As she continued, Tetsuya chomped half of the stick on his mouth and swallowed it. She didn't notice and continued.

"I really feel jealous of you Tetsuya." IF said in a quiet tone. "You saved Nepgear from being attacked by that big Dogoo and again when the Underling tried to attack her first. You were already there before me…"

"IF." Tetsuya suddenly answered in a stern but a monotone and friendly voice; this took IF aback, he had finally said something while listening to her. He let out a sigh and closed his eyes in a bit of an irritated matter before chuckling.

"I'm glad you finally decided to talk about it," IF, once again taken aback by the spiky pink hair boy, yelled out, "W-what?!" The group stopped and turned to look at the female Guild Member with slightly shocked and curious faces.

"Um, what's wrong IF-san?" Nepgear asked with a sweat drop.

When IF was about to answer, Tetsuya answered first. "Oh, she thought she saw an enemy but it was actually a bug instead, so nothing to worry about, okay?" Nepgear slightly nodded before saying "Oh, okay…" The group quickly began walking again and returned to looking around. IF sighed and punched Tetsuya's arm, making him say "…Ow" in his usual monotone way.

She pointed at him. "The hell you mean, 'Oh, she thought she saw an enemy but it was actually a bug instead, so nothing to worry about, okay?' I'm quite perceptive for your information!"

"I see…"

"Hmph, you see I'm in the Planeptune's Intelligence Division!"

"I see…"

"I've known Nepgear, Nep-ko, Compa, and Histoire more than you dp!"

"I see…"

"I've also know about more stuff than you think too!"

"I see-"

"Enough with the 'I see", do you even react to what I was saying to you!?"

Tetsuya pointed towards his headphones. "No not really, I was listening to loud music on my headphones while you were talking." IF gritted her teeth and blushed immensely. This was a un-IF trait of her to show. For some reason, this teenager, who somehow behaves like a child with a monotone face and pink hair, was around Neptune's level of teasing, perhaps even worse.

"Y-you…" It looked like she wanted to punch him in the face, but before she could think of going through with it, Compa caught everybody's attention.

"What about Scary Dragon Monster-san over there?" Compa pointed at a huge brown dragon.

"Yeah, that's it! The Ancient Dragon!" Arisa yelled out. The dragon noticed them and let out a loud roar.

"I get the feeling that's our target. Let's strike while we have the initiative."

"Right!" Everybody yelled out as they took out their weapons. This was the first time Tetsuya had seen a huge monster, bigger than the Fenrir that they fought and saw.

The dragon roared again before running towards them. Akako and Aoko went first as they yelled out, "Alright, we're going first!"

"Yeah!" Aoko yells out, as they began running in synch. The weapons they had were twin daggers. They shared as they only had one set.

"Akako!" Aoko looks at Akako as the red-head signaled her, "Alright!" Then, both of them brought something out from their backs. Wait, from the back?

The thing they grabbed was another set of daggers except these had big hilts with the blades sealed by their respective scabbards. They took out the scabbards and quickly placed them in their pockets. The blade's length was the same length as the one they're currently using.

They both yelled out their move, **"Fatal Kill DOUBLE!"**

The twins first slashed the legs of the dragon which made it roar in pain. Then, they stabbed their daggers into the legs. They jumped on the handles of the daggers and used Tetsuya's sword style, and before anybody knew it, they slashed the dragon, but from opposite sides: Akako on the left and Aoko on the right. But they weren't finished as Aoko threw her dagger to her twin sister. She continued to use the style as she did something with the daggers.

She slammed the dagger's pommels together, which connected the daggers together, forming a spear with blades. Akako yelled at Tetsuya, "Hey Nii-chan, watch this!"

Akako threw the spear to Aoko, who managed to catch it. Aoko then threw the spear at the Dragon's forehead.

"RooooooOOOOAAARRRRRRR!" Both ran towards the head using its arms as paths for them to run on. As they reach up to the head, both of them took the spear out. Then, they took out the connected daggers and with one on their hands, they stabbed the monster's head again with all of their strength.

"Haaaaaaaaa…!"

"Ahhhhhhhhhhh…!" With a mighty force, the Ancient Dragon fell to the ground, with the twins quickly grabbing all of their daggers and running towards the group, specifically towards Tetsuya.

"Hey, Hey Nii-chan! Did ya see that!"

"Yeah I saw that, your training really worked out huh, in this world I mean…"

"Eheheheh…" Aoko and Akako rubbed their heads, but all joy was stopped when IF pointed towards the supposedly dead Ancient Dragon.

"It's still alive, don't lose concentration!" It slowly started getting up till it was standing again. Its eyes sharpened as it roared again.

"GGGGAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!"

Arisa had a hand near her eyes as she looked at it, "Hmph. Since Akako and Aoko gave the monster major damage, we just need to use some SP skills!"

'I wonder why they're called SP skills?' Tetsuya thought for a moment before going first.

"Let's go, **Strike Dash**!" He threw one of his swords towards the dragon, hitting it towards the chest, then twirling back to Tetsuya like a boomerang. IF came next.

"Alright, **Demonic Inferno**!" Light gathered in her hand and as she twirled, saying the name, a bunch of explosions surrounded the dragon before a huge pillar of fire appeared.

As the pillar appeared, Arisa was already behind the dragon and waited for the moment till the pillar was gone. "Heh, see my move! **Lacerate Score**!" Flipping her sword in 360 degrees and catching it, she sliced the dragon with lightning-like speed. She let out one more huge slash. "Nepgear go!" The woman yelled out.

Nepgear tightened her grip on her sword and dashed towards the monster. " **Mirage Dance**!" She slashed and slashed at the dragon till she quickly dashed behind her enemy and let out one huge slash on it.

"RAAAAAAAGGGGHHHHHHH!" Finally, the dragon came crashing down and didn't get up. Something popped out of its arm and dropped to the ground, which turned out to be the Treasure Gem. Aoko went and grabbed it and showed it towards the group.

"Yes! We got it!"

"This is a Treasure Gem? Yippee! We finally got a gem thingy!" Compa excitedly said as she looked at the Treasure Gem.

"All that's left is the Hematite. We'd better hurry up and find it as soon as we can…"

"I'm afraid you'll never find it! You losers ain't goin' nowhere!" A tomboyish voiced yelled out. As one, the group turned towards the annoyingly familiar voice.

"Ugh. This one again. You're persistent for a bottom-tier peon, Underling."

"I feel sorry for you to have to come and lose to us so many times, Underling-san."

"No matter the market, underlings have to handle all the hands-on grunt work, don't they?"

The Yuugita family was nodding to what IF, Compa, and Nepgear had said. Tetsuya was the only one with eyes open and having a blank expression as he nodded as well.

The Underling burst in anger as several tic marks appeared on her head. "Ugh! Shut the hell up! I'm SO sorry for being who I am! Hmph. Not like it matters. After today, those gums will never flap again! Come out, secret weapon!"

"Finally learned that underlings like you need to come at us in droves, huh?" IF mocked her.

"We can't afford to waste any time. I'll activate HDD and finish them all in one fell sweep!"

The Underling laughed at them. "Man, kids are stupid! You really think I wouldn't have prepared for that nonsense."

Then suddenly, a burst of light hit them. "What the goodness!? Wh-What's going on…?"

"Gear-chan, is something the matter?" Compa asked.

Nepgear looked around herself. "I…can't activate HDD…Why…?"

"Because I came prepared, idiot. This monster seals your ability to transform! Let's see ya fight now!"

"This could be bad. Compa, let's get out of here!"

"You betcha!"

"Hold it right there!" A sudden loud voice yelled out towards them. Everybody looked to see who it was.

"Huh!? And who in the hell are you!?"

The person showed themselves. "How dare you treat such cute girls this way!"

The person was a young girl with a short stature and childlike physique. Despite her physique, she has a very well-endowed chest. More than IF even. She also has very fair skin and black eyes. She has bright red hair with some of it from the left side of her head worn in a fashion similar to a side ribbon that looked like an R, held by a black ribbon with yellow beads on the end. She has white highlights that looked kinda similar to Tetsuya on her right bangs and on the ends of her tied hair.

The girl was dressed in a Chinese attire consisting of black and red colors. The top is dark gray and black with golden lining and ruffles with small red X-shaped strings under her breast and a belt like piece. At her chest is an opal blue Magatama. She wore red unattached sleeves with small pink cherry blossom and petal patterns around the bottom, with golden lining and black at the bottom. At the top, just below her shoulders are black ruffles. Her skirt consists of four big petal shapes resembling her sleeves, with a pair of shorts underneath. She wears similar black and red shoes.

Around her body is a golden dragon, which looked to be her pet.

"I've been eyeing them all as potential wifeys, so any more funny moves and you'll face the wrath of Red-chan!"

"…" The Underling went quiet.

"…" The whole group also went quiet as well.

Finally, the awkward silence was broken by the Underling. "What in the most unholy hell is this chick trying to say? Is she missin' some screws?"

The girl called Red didn't listen and yelled out, "For my goddess, my CPU, my wifey! I am coming to save you!"

"Huh? W-Wait, what? Who, where…why!?" Nepgear questioned, exasperated. The group was asking the same question.

"Save those questions for the honeymoon, my lovely. We can go over everything after we deal with this!" Red yelled out as she took her weapon which was apparently a yo-yo. And a huge one at that.

"Kh! Whatever, go get them!" The Underling shouted out to the robots. Now, everybody had their weapons ready to go and battle. One of the machines came first and tried to attack Red.

"Ha! Take this, robotey!" Red yelled as she smacked the robot with her yo-yo and another one with a twirl.

"Hieeyah!" One more smack to the robot and to everybody' shock, the first robot was smashed to pieces.

"Wh-What… What the hell happen!? How did a stupid kid do that?" The Underling shouted in shock. Well, everybody was shocked that a girl who wanted wifeys was actually a really tough cookie.

"Come one everybody, concentrate! Another one is coming!" Tetsuya yelled as the other one came. He deflected the robot's attack with one of his blades, making an _ssshhhhhh_ sound. As he continued to deflect its attacks, something glowed in his pocket.

"Huh?"

"Hey, Tetsuya, don't lose your guard!" Arisa yelled which caught his attention as the robot whirled its unoccupied arm before letting loose a punch. This action immediately prompted him to use the other sword.

He tried to push the robot away from him but it was strong as hell. "Nnn…Ghaahhhhh…"

*Plop*

Suddenly, the glowing thing came out from his pocket, which turned out to be the pocket knife. It was between them and Tetsuya stared at it, until another overwhelming light came from it again.

"Wha! Not again!"

…

…

…

…

…

 **-?-**

Pitch black. The same thing happened when Tetsuya talked to Histoire in his supposed dream. When he opened his eyes, he saw nothing but himself, as he was letting out a soft glow. A voice called to him.

"… _ **..Yuugita Tetsuya, do you desire something in life?"**_

"Huh? Aren't you that…"

" _ **Do you want this power? This power you were born with?"**_

"…Power?"

" _ **I'm not the one who sealed your powers in that pocket knife, though right now, I'm presenting you with a choice. You can decide whether to use this power or not, but if you choose to harness this power, prepare for the eventual backlash. Once you do, another you will unlock on the way."**_

"What's this power?"

"… _ **.That's something you'll have to discover on your own, and when you do, know I will be there."**_

"….Who ARE you anyway…."

"… _ **Haha… That is something you will find out soon. I will meet you in my real form when the time comes. I mean, I have to protect your stupid ass from these life-and-death situations, you know."**_

"…"

" _ **Now then… Oh, I have to go now; we'll meet again though, you'll be glad I gave your power back to you… or not, depending on the situation. Oh well, bye-bye for now!"**_

"Huh? Wait, I need to-"Once more, unconsciousness smacked Tetsuya right in the head and his eyes closed unwillingly.

But, despite his vision blurring, he saw the pocket knife, now glowing a bright red, floating towards him, enticing him to grab it. Once he grabbed it, the red light shone brighter. His body glowed brighter as well as flames surrounded him the dark space.

His pink hair turned to the color of flames and spiked a little bit more up. His blue ocean eyes that were closed opened to reveal red-orange eyes that gave off a glow brighter than the flames surrounding him.

The pocket knife that was broken had a blade now. No. Blade wasn't the right word. It was a glowing blade, more specifically, a blue lightsaber. He lifted the blade and took a look at it. The flames acting as the wind; his bangs had blown over his newly colored, stoic eyes.

" _ **Now Yuugita Tetsuya, use the power you unlocked to your heart's content!"**_

…

"T-Tetsuya-kun!" Tetsuya was back again, with Nepgear yelling towards him.

"W-What's with that new look?" IF said, as shocked as Compa. Tetsuya looked at himself; he was still in his regular clothes, but when he took a look at his reflection (provided by a conveniently-placed puddle on the ground), he saw some changes to his appearance.

His hair color was replaced with the color of flames, his eyes turned red-orange with the pupil as a power symbol. "What…?" He looked at his hands, he had dropped his swords and the only one he had on his hands was the pocket knife. Or light saber to say, with a blue-colored blade.

"What!? There's another CPU, I didn't get told this! How did he transform?! These robots are supposed to seal a CPU's transformation! Dammit, everything is messed up!" The Underling yelled and had her hands on her head.

IF shouted a warning. "Tetsuya look out!" The robots that Tetsuya was fighting against were now floating towards him. But Tetsuya wasn't looking at anywhere but only towards his pocket knife, with his bangs covering his eyes.

*SLASH!*

Tetsuya hadn't looked up, but he slashed the robot in one, precise move. The slice ended up splitting the robot in half as its pieces fell to the ground. Everybody looked shocked. The last one went for Tetsuya, and this time he didn't use the blade.

Finally, he moved to face it and had his fist balled up and covered with fire. He punched through the last one; the flame melting its insides. He then pulled his arm out and moved away as the robot exploded.

The Underling looked shocked as she stared at them. "Gah! Taken down by a damn cliché kid whose got brawn and no brains! And a CPU! Dammit, you'll rue this day!" She quickly ran away.

IF clapped her hands. "You can't help but praise the woman for her ability to escape at the speed of light." After all that trouble, Nepgear went to say her thanks to Red.

"Um, thank you very much for your help. You came at just the right time…"

Red proudly pointed to herself. "Heh! It's only natural to come to my future wifey's aid!"

"May I… ask who you are again? I don't think we've ever met…" Nepgear asked.

"Yeah, this is totally, absolutely, the first time we've ever met! In person!"

"In…person?" The CPU Candidate questioned.

Red pointed towards herself again. "Call me Red. I'm traveling around Gamindustri to find my perfect wifey!"

IF said. "Oh, wait. I've heard about some 'unusual' girl who's always running around, looking for her soulmate…"

"Oh I heard about that too." Arisa claims. "Are you telling me that's you?"

Red looked surprised as her eyes sparkled in amazement. "Amazing! People spread rumors about me! That's super-de-duper!"

IF began to question her. "What are you doing way out here? Don't get me wrong, I appreciate that you helped out and all, but…"

"Y'see, I've always wanted to have a CPU wifey, and when I heard you three left Planeptune, it was my big chance!" Red stated her reasons.

Her eyes sparkled again and sure enough, you could see some twinkles around her. "Sure enough, I managed to find you, especially my goddess, in such a dime romance novel situation – in danger!"

"Your goddess…? Um…is that…me?" Nepgear pointed towards herself.

As if Red ignored her, she continued her ramble, "Can't you hear the bells of marital destiny ringing for us!? This meeting is the start of our life together!"

"Um… Uh… Goodness… I don't really see where this conversation is going…" Nepgear scratched her cheeks in confusion.

Again, not listening to anybody, she continued, "Okay, so basically, take me with you! There's no way I'd let my wifey out of my sight when trouble is afoot!"

"I do hereby solemnly swear to protect my wifey with my lifey!" Red put a hand on her chest.

Nepgear looked flustered as she looked to IF and Arisa for help "Uh…huh… Um, wh-what am I supposed to do in this kind of situation…?"

"It's your decision, IF-chan."

IF thought for a moment before smiling it off. "Let her join us, I guess. After all, you can't deny that she's pretty strong."

"Having more friends is good for your health!" Compa recommended.

"Yay! Huzzah, et cetera! Awesome! I hope we'll be together forever, my wifey goddess!"

Nepgear finally regained her composure and told Red. "Um, I'm sorry, but could you please not call me a goddess like that? I'm only a CPU Candidate, you know… I'd be much more comfortable if you just called me Nepgear."

"Ooh, that's my girl! No need for me to be so formal with my wifey, right? Then…let's have some fun, Nepgear!" Red cheerfully yelled out with a hand in the air.

"AGHK!" Everybody looked to Tetsuya to see that he was holding his chest while coughing.

"Tetsuya-kun!" Nepgear rushed over towards him, as his transformation ended and was replaced with his normal hair and eyes. The blade of the pocket knife was gone as the pocket knife itself reverted back to its usual broken state. Luckily, Tetsuya was able to gather his breath and told them that nothing unpleasant occurred. They were relieved and began heading back to Planeptune once again. Arisa told the details of what happened to Histoire while excluding details about Tetsuya's transformation.

…

 **-Lastation-**

They returned to Lastation again. They finally had the Treasure Gem but now they needed the Hematite. IF asked a question towards Red about the Hematite. "So we still need some Hematite, but we don't have a single lead. Know anything about it, Red?"

"I know that I know nothing!" Red said in a jolly way without any consent or fear of what to say.

IF sighed as she put a hand on her head, "Far too chipper for such a useless comment. Not that I expected you to actually be of help."

Nepgear said, "What should we do? We need Hematite to get that information…" As they talked, a man suddenly approached them.

"Pardon me. I happened to overhear your private discussion… You are seeking Hematite, yes?"

Compa looked at the person. "We certainly are, but who are you, Mysterious Man-san?"

The man saluted like a soldier. "Town security, ma'am. I recalled seeing a deposit of Hematite in a dungeon I visited before."

"Wow, really!? Could you please tell us where that dungeon is?"

The guard had held out his hand to stop Nepgear. "Hold your striped stockings, girlie. I'd be happy to tell you, but how about you do me a solid in return?" IF looked angry as it reminded her of the bargain they had with Lastation's Oracle.

"Why does this guy piss me off? Oh, right, 'cuz he sounds just like Law of Equivalent Exchange-san."

Ignoring IF, Nepgear immediately replied. "Yes, sir! We'll do anything!"

"Great. There's a monster causing problems over at Rebeat Resort. Mind giving it the ol' what-for? My unit had been tasked with hunting it down, but we were in way over our heads…"

"This sounds like a ton of fun! Leave the pummeling to us!" Red yelled out.

"We'll go defeat that creature right away, so please tell us what you know once we return," said Nepgear.

"You got it. Good luck. We're all counting on you." The guard said waving out to them as they departed to the location of the monster.

"…" The guard didn't notice but Tetsuya was looking back at him with a stare until he looked forward again.

The guard watched as the entire group disappeared from his sight. "…Did I do good?" The guard quietly said; he turned around as a shadow appeared. It was the Lastation Oracle, Kei. She walked to the guy.

"Yes. I thought they'd be more leery of the request, but simple minds want simple tasks. Or is it desperation?" She put a hand on her chin, a look of curiosity on her face.

The guard raised his hand as if he was asking a question to her. "If I may be so bold, couldn't you have just given them the information without the wild goose chase?"

"It's bad business for one entity to go easy on another. But not getting the materials would be problematic…"

"Then again, I did give them the very same intel I gave to her…" Kei whispered as she smiled and thought about the person.

…

The group was stocking on some medicine because they almost ran out. While they were heading to the medicine shop, Nepgear looked at Tetsuya, who had a stern look, and kept looking down with his arms crossed. Finally, she caught his attention by speaking out to him softly.

"Tetsuya-kun, are you alright?" Nepgear said with concern in her voice. He looked up immediately, before shock appeared on his face.

"Oh… It's nothing." He looked down again, though he couldn't help but shiver for some reason. It definitely wasn't from the guard earlier, though he was still suspicious of him, but from something else entirely.

His train of thought broke off when someone accidently bumped into him.

"Oh! Sorry, mister." The girl said before she ran off to the opposite direction of where the group was walking towards.

"Heh? Eh?" Suddenly, Tetsuya began touching his shirt and pants.

"What's wrong Tetsuya-kun?"

"That girl… she stole my wallet!" As fast as lightning, Tetsuya had already begun running towards the direction of the thief.

"B-but Tetsuya-kun! What about the others?"

"Just tell them I'll be there soon, it shouldn't take long!" He yelled before completely disappearing from her sight. She looked more worried now but she began running to the others to tell them what happened.

As for Tetsuya, he finally saw her and before he was about to do anything to get her from behind, he accidently yelled out towards her.

"Hey, you!" The girl noticed and with a shocked face, she began running too, to get away from Tetsuya.

"Hey!" He held out his hand towards her but of course she didn't stop so he had to chase her now. Tetsuya began running once again after the thief. Some people just looked at them because they didn't look like they didn't want to intervene. Tetsuya was catching up towards the girl but when he was about to grab her arm, she quickly sped up to the side of a building.

It caught him off guard, showing he was shocked that the girl had really good reflexes before chasing her again. Luckily, guards were there to finally appear for his sake.

"Stop!" One guard tried to stop and another tried to block but to their surprise, the thief jumped and flipped over them, landing smoothly on the ground.

"Wha- how did she!?" The girl looked back and showed a sly grin at them before running once again. Tetsuya moved past the officers as he chased after her.

'Damn! She's good, how come I had to get robbed by her?!' He thought in anger. Somehow, he got a feeling this chase would take a while.

But it felt familiar somehow. Very familiar.

…

"E-everyone!" Nepgear shouted as she finally found them, waiting outside of the shop they were in. IF was the first to head toward the exhausted CPU Candidate who was catching her breath.

"Where the hell were you? And Tetsuya too, where is he?" It took a while for Nepgear to catch her breath before telling them what happened.

"Ha… ha…! S-someone stole Tetsuya-kun's wallet!"

" **Eh!"** Everybody shouted. Arisa grabbed Nepgear's shoulders and asked, "Hey, what did the thief look like?"

"U-um… well… I think she was a girl and she had-" Nepgear stopped for one moment thinking about the thief.

Yes, the thief had something that looked similar to Tetsuya. Of course, she had the same hair color as Tetsuya!

But would that count? Many girls in Gamindustri had pink hair.

"Do you remember, Gear-chan?" Compa said in a worried voice, the CPU Candidate finally mustered enough courage to answer.

"She… had the same hair color as Tetsuya-kun's…"

"…What?" Arisa, Akako, and Aoko were the only ones to say that as their entire expression turned into one of complete shock.

"…Did this girl… have green eyes?" Arisa slowly says.

"Huh? Well, I couldn't see her face at all…" Nepgear said that but she remembered seeing small flecks of green on her face, though the thief's face wasn't visible.

…

After a while, the thief and Tetsuya finally stopped, but only because they were now exhausted from all the running and other shenanigans.

"…Ha!... *Cough* *Cough* Finally… you stopped!" He was slightly bent over, resting his hands on his legs while taking deep breaths.

"Heh… You too… you really haven't **changed,** have you?" The thief said who had her back to Tetsuya.

"!"

 _Haven't changed?_...What did she mean?

"Wait… This voice…!" The girl turned around to face Tetsuya. The girl's face was concealed a bit by her white cap, but her smile wasn't.

"Y-y-you…. H-how…..?" For the very first time, Tetsuya was completely caught off guard as the girl slowly took off her cap.

She merely continued to smile as she finally showed her face.

…

Uni was still wandering around Lastation because she was getting prepared to go to a place that contained something. She sighed before recalling, "I almost got lost until someone helped me find the location of the place… she seemed so friendly. I wonder if I could meet her again…"

She sighed once more before smiling to herself to concentrate. She skipped around, remembering the name the person told her.

 **Flashback…**

After finally getting the new rifle, Uni went to buy some ammo for it just in case for backup. She exited the gun store, stretching out her arms.

"Whew, I got backup ammo, scope, guns, which include rifles, assault rifles, Gatling guns, pistols, shotguns, snipers…" The only gun she always brought and adored was a normal black rifle which she always used. While she talked more to herself, she accidently bumped into someone.

"Woah! Sorry!" The person said with their arms up.

"Ack! Um… It's okay; it's my fault actually for not paying attention." Uni said to the person.

Uni couldn't really see the person's (girl's) face, but when she turned, she noticed that she has long pink hair and was wearing a short-sleeved jacket that's white on the outside and lavender in the inside (from what Uni saw). It's worn over a light pink tank-top that has short frills on the bottom with thin ribbons on the sides of the same color. She wore tan shorts, with red sneakers and white socks. On both of her index fingers were silver rings.

To top it off, she wore a white newsboy cap decorated with a splatter of pink stars. Two button decorative pins are attached to the cap. One button pin was that of a yellow smiley face, but with a sly tongue sticking out of its smile. The other one was a white wing, with blue markings splashed on the tips.

'Wow, she looks the fashionable girl type…' Uni thought as she took a good look at the girl who was dusting off her shorts. While she was doing that, the girl suddenly looked shocked.

"Oh no! I totally forgot the route to the Basilicom!" She began to panic and walk all over the place.

"Do you have something to do there?" Uni said to the still panicked girl.

"Huh? Yeah, I do! I have to meet the Oracle, but I forgot the route to it!"

Uni, remembering the directions of where the Basilicom was from here, told the girl, "You just need to go far right up and then take the left turn… and there you have it!"

Her face brightened up. "Oh! Thank you very much!" She began shaking hands with Uni before asking a question to the Lastation's CPU Candidate.

"Hey, miss, what's your name, I want to repay you later!"

"O-oh… it's okay, but it's Uni. What's yours?" When she asked that question, the girl had let go of her hands and started scooting off.

"My name is Kousei Kohane!" The girl happily yelled out with a peace sign over her left eye before quickly leaving.

 **Flashback ended…**

"Perhaps she would be my friend too…" She still wanted to make up to Nepgear of course, but right now she was busy and plus she didn't know where Nepgear or the others were. But she would always have one thought that would stay in her head.

'Tetsuya-kun might be like that and stuff, but he's really nice actually!' Yes, he had demonstrated this when carrying her at the Christmas event they were at and said he would repay her like Kohane said. Uni skipped happily as she slightly blushed.

She seriously couldn't tell why that moment always made her giddy and happy at all.

* * *

 **Special event: Valentines!**

Nepgear: It's Valentine's Day huh...

Akako: Why don't we make chocolate for Nii-chan?

Nepgear: Eh! But is it okay?

Arisa: What are you talking about? Tetsuya is going to accept it, what else is going to happen, he's a glutton you know.

Nepgear: Well... Okay.

(Few hours after making chocolate)

Arisa: Hey Tetsuya!

Tetsuya: Huh, What is it?

Arisa: Do you know what day is it today?

Tetsuya: ...Free buffet day?

Arisa: No! It's Valentine's Day!

Tetsuya: ...What?

Aoko: Nii-san, we made some chocolate for you. IF-san, Compa-san, and Nepgear-san did so as well.

Tetsuya: ...

Akako: Huh? Why are you so silent, Nii-chan? You should be happy!

Tetsuya: I am but-

Arisa: Don't be an dense idiot and accept it already.

Tetsuya: ...'Kay.

Akako: I know Nepgear-chan, IF-chan, and Compa-chan for some reason didn't want to give it to Nii-chan, but he looked like he was reluctant to accept for some reason, I wonder why?

Tetsuya: *Mumble* *Mumble* What... should I.. do... What should... I doooooooooooooooo!

* * *

 **AN: WAHOO! This chapter is finished, finally!**

 **Akako and Aoko: Yeah!**

 **Tetsuya: It's not over yet though.**

 **Arisa: A few more chapters to go people!**

 **AN: A lot of interesting things happened in this chapter today, but more will come! It is time for us to part people!**

 **Yuugita Family: Yeah!**

 **(Everybody leaves.)**


	9. Lastation Final: I'll be Your Friend

**Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth: Generation of True Gods**

 **Chapter 6: Lastation Final: Secrets Revealed! "I'll be Your Friend"**

 **AN: Sorry guys! It's been months hasn't it...**

 **Tetsuya: Yep.**

 **Arisa: Yep.**

 **Akako/Aoko: Yep!**

 **AN: But hey! I'm not dead yet! Neither this story! Also everybody, this chapter is uploaded the day this fanfic came out!**

 **Akako: Are we gonna have an anniversary?**

 **AN: Of course! This story isn't finished but hey what's the fun!**

 **Everybody: Yeah!**

 **AN: Everybody get ready! And viewers, get reading to this chapter now!**

* * *

 **-Lastation-**

It was like a standoff.

Between the thief and Tetsuya, who was staring at her in shock.

"…!" He couldn't speak due to the shock, though he didn't appear that way on the outside.

"Hahaha! Are you really that shocked to see my face after 8 years?" she said, her green eyes brightening.

"…" He still didn't talk for a few seconds till his expression changed to a serious angry one. "Why are you here?" He spoke in a condescending tone towards her.

She laughed again, making it feel like she's mocking him, "Wow! You still haven't changed that tone you use for me, huh?" She rubbed her head while laughing it off.

"Well you haven't changed that annoying personality of yours after 8 years."

"Sorry, but that's how I am you know."

"It can be quite distasteful."

"Only to you."

After that, they stayed quiet again, still looking at each other eye to eye. While he still glared, the thief's smile disappeared as she reached for something in her jacket's pocket. The action made Tetsuya suddenly cautious. When she reached for the thing, her hand was posed as if she was about to throw something at him.

"Here." She lightly threw the object to Tetsuya who caught it with one hand and looked what it was. To his shock, it was his wallet that she had stolen from him.

"I don't really need it because it's Japanese money and Gamindustri doesn't use Japanese currency as you noticed."

He now spoke in a rough voice. "Huh? You know my money is from Earth?"

She lightly chuckled. "Of course, but I haven't gone there yet."

But… then she said: "Or I don't want to go back to Earth…"

Tetsuya stood there quietly, glaring at her for what she said.

"Come on, when are you going to stop making that face, it's annoying you know."

"Well I'm sorry." He sarcastically said, while flashing his canine teeth towards her.

"Well, hmph, you were really rash at first, but now you're calm huh? Never would I see the day where I see a **relative** of mine that is a monster turn into a quiet human being."

He scoffed at her. "Enough with the theatrics. Now let me ask again: _what are you doing here_?"

"…" She stayed quiet with another sly smile and placed her cap on her head again, which threw a shadow over her face. She turned away from him.

"Nothing, I just wanted to visit Lastation for some business."

"Did that 'business' mean looking for me?"

"Heh, probably, but it's more than that."

"…I see."

Tetsuya turned his back and began walking away; the thief promptly looked back at him, "Huh? Aren't you going to ask more or chase after me again?"

He stopped and turned his face slightly for her to see. "Nah, because I know you'll be **there** anyway. And plus-" He paused for a second before looking away from her again.

"I get the feeling you're spying on me anyway…" He started walking again, with his back to her. The thief stood for a while, the wind gently blowing her long pink hair, before she too walked away. She smiled and said:

"Heh, you're intuition never surprises me… who knew we were connected into a fantasy world like this…"

…

The girls waited for Tetsuya to return as Arisa somehow convinced them to not worry. Nepgear used the time to think about the thief's appearance. It was weird, maybe they mistook the thief for a friend they knew.

"…" Her fingers fidgeted, Nepgear vaguely realizing that her hands were sweating. She wiped her hands on her skirt but the sweating wouldn't stop. She really was worried about him. She hoped he would be fine.

As they waited, Tetsuya finally came back.

Nepgear was the first to notice and called out his name "Tetsuya-kun!" Everybody looked and walked towards him while Red ran to him first.

"Jeez Tetsuya, you shouldn't leave my wifeys in a worry! You should've let them take your wallet!" Red expressed in an angry but a jolly voice. This prompted an annoyed sigh from Tetsuya, who wondered if she was being serious or sarcastic.

"First off, they are not your 'wifeys'. And plus, my wallet had my money and other stuff in there." He rubbed his head. IF came close and pushed Red away. "Forget her, you got your wallet?"

He nodded "Yeah." He showed it before quickly putting it back in his pocket.

"But still… It's pretty rare to have a thief steal money rather than games…" Compa said. This caught Tetsuya's attention.

"What do you mean by that Compa?"

She had a finger to her cheek. "Well… Not that much people steal money unless it's are very very VERY high amount but it's mostly games."

"After all, this world is connected with games." Arisa spoke.

"…I see…" He lowered his head a little before Arisa gave a clap.

"Well, we better find a hotel to sleep in… I feel sleepy…" She yawned with a hand over her mouth.

"…It's not even night yet and we just came back from Planeptune…"

But he gave a large sigh, "Hah… fine, we'll find one, I'm pretty tired too." He complied as he rubbed his head and yawned too.

"Yeah." Akako said rubbing her eyes.

"Me too…" Aoko also rubbed her eyes too.

"Me three!" Red yelled out loud. She wasn't even tired though. Is she just going along with the situation?

"Yeah, yeah, fine, let's go." IF said as she signaled everybody to follow her.

…

 **-Lastation Hotel-**

IF had managed to track down one hotel that was cheap to use. Everybody decided they would spend the night at the hotel for the entire day, resting and talking. And the one paying for the bills would be Arisa.

"Why do I have to PAY the bills!?" Arisa immaturely yelled out loud. Tetsuya blankly looked at her and said, " _Well_ you do have the check from the Christmas tournament. Thus, you are paying for it." He then looked away and Arisa and the others swear they saw something devious on the monotone boy's face.

"Mmmmmhhhhhh…!" Arisa puffed her cheeks and had a big tic mark on her head.

"And once again, Nii-san is fighting Arisa…" The battle between adopted son and adopted mother had begun… on the ground, childishly pulling at each other's cheeks and hair.

"Ahahaha…" Nepgear gave a small laugh.

 **-Later at night-**

Hours passed till nighttime came around. Tetsuya was the first to go to sleep.

"Good night." He said towards the girls.

" **Good night** / _GOOD NIGHT_!" The only one who yelled was of course Red.

Just as he was about to close the door, Arisa said something, "Ah, Tetsuya, one more thing!"

"What…?"

"Just remember, no sneaking in our room or-"

"Good night." He immediately slammed the door.

"Hey! Listen to your mother!"

"Go to your room, old hag."

"OI!"

"….What the heck….?" Tetsuya said in a monotone voice through the door.

IF sighed and the rest of the girls laughed at them.

The girls shared a room together while Tetsuya had his own room to himself. Red jumped on her bed, rolling around on it.

"Phew… Today's almost been a rough day." Arisa said as she stretched and let her body go down on the bed.

"Well I guess you can say that…" Nepgear says as she sat on her bed. She then looks at Akako and Aoko who too also began rolling on their bed, which they were sharing.

"Hey… Akako-chan, Aoko-chan." Akako and Aoko stopped and looked up to Nepgear. **"What?"** They said at the same time. Typical twin behavior.

"Are you related to Tetsuya-kun at all…?"

The twins stared at Nepgear in silence with blank looks. Finding the question a bit embarrassing, Nepgear began waving her hands. "I-I mean it's that… you don't really look like him… or something… you know…"

"We are."

"Huh?"

"We are related. To Nii-san." Aoko answered. Akako nodded at the same time Aoko said it.

"But… it's difficult." Aoko began pulling lightly on the sheets. Nepgear and the others looked at the twins in confusion as they started listening as well.

"What do you mean?" Nepgear said, giving her a questioning look.

"Um…" Aoko looked at Arisa and the woman sighed, getting up.

Arisa answered, in a very blunt manner. "To be blunt, Akako and Aoko, are Tetsuya's _**half**_ **-siblings**."

Everybody now looked shocked. The twins only looked down, whilst Arisa wasn't shocked at all. "They were already with me but they are very much siblings."

"…So do you know the mother?" Compa calmly asked.

"…" Arisa looked down as well. She looked up, "Yes I know who the mother is but I won't say I..." Arisa temporarily stopped talking for a few seconds before continuing.

"I don't know the mother's name." She looked at the other side of the room.

Now, IF asks. "What about the father?"

"… Don't know."

"…" The room became silent again, this time Red was actually staying quiet until-

Red yelled out. "D-Does that mean… Tetsuya, Akako, and Aoko don't have a dad at all?!"

"…." People in the room looked at Red in confusion with Arisa shrugging her shoulders.

But she gave a small smile.

And after Red's outburst, no one asked anymore questions and eventually fell asleep.

Nepgear was still awake though, curiosity swirling around in her mind. When Arisa said with no hesitation that Tetsuya and his younger twin sisters were half-siblings, she was kind of weirded out how Arisa would say something that should have been reserved for close friends.

'Tetsuya-kun wouldn't say that…. Would he?' She thought and thought until she felt her eyelids slowly closing and promptly fell asleep.

…

 **-Rebeat Resort-**

After the one-night at the hotel, everybody geared up after having breakfast and went to their destination: Rebeat Resort.

Tetsuya came up to Nepgear's right side and asked, "Did you have a nice sleep?"

"Eh! Oh goodness, don't scare me like that, Tetsuya-kun…"

"…I was just asking a simple question. So did you?"

"Yes I did. What about you?" He nodded to her question. As they saw no monsters approaching them, Nepgear decided to take a chance to ask him about a certain something.

"U-Um… Tetsu-"

Before the CPU Candidate could even finish saying his name, Red exclaimed and pointed to something. "That monster must be our target!"

"Okay, everybody! Let's go and defeat it!" Arisa yelled out pulling out her sword while everyone got out their respective weapons.

"E-E-Ehhhhh!" Nepgear yelled and saw Tetsuya had already gone ahead. 'Just when I was going to ask…' She thought in a despondent tone. But she got her light beam saber out.

"First blood!" Arisa yelled. She slashed the red dolphin-like monster with ease. And then another slash with two hands on the grip of the sword before backing away. "You're next Tetsuya!"

"…Got it." As he slowly pulled out his twin blades, he changed his grip on the one with the red jewel on the pommel so that he was holding it in a normal style other than his usual reverse grip style.

He shouted " **Strike Dash!** " He threw the blade like a boomerang and it slammed the Sea Hunter before coming back to Tetsuya.

"Let's get him while we have the chance!"

" **Right!** " Everybody yelled and came at it with an entire team attack. Red went first and whacked the dolphin with her yo-yo.

"Eat this!" Red yelled as she let out another whack at the monster. "Alright, go get them, my wifeys!"

'….Like I said… what about me…?' Tetsuya gave a blank stare at Red as he waited for the girls to do their attacks. However-

"Wrrrrrrrraaaaaaaaaagggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" The Sea Hunter let out a roar and rammed into Akako and Aoko.

"Waugh!"

"Ah!" Both screamed as they landed on the ground. The monster swayed back and forth to blow the girls away. Compa flew towards the twins, landing on top of them.

"…Owwie…" Compa squirmed as tears lightly came out from her eyes. Though she didn't know that she was on top of the twins.

"Even though it hurts…" Akako started.

"It…. Feels good to feel… 'this'." Aoko finished. Compa's breasts were pressed on top of the twins' heads.

"Akako-chan, Aoko-chan!" She wringed both the twins back and forth to see if they were okay but once again she didn't notice her breasts were hitting them again.

'…Hey, perverted twins….. KNOCK IT OFF!' He thought loudly in his mind, glaring at the twins. Whilst still looking at them, he didn't notice that IF had been sent flying towards his direction.

"Tetsuya!"

"Weh?"

*BAM!*

IF slammed towards Tetsuya, which kicked up a big dust cloud that covered the both of them. Luckily, Tetsuya caught her but something felt weird.

*Boing*

…Boing?

*Boing* *Boing*

This sensation, this mysterious sensation… Tetsuya knew it and he was in for it.

"…Tetsuya….." Indeed, the pink haired man was still holding her but one of his hands just had to grab a sensitive body part.

"….IF…" The dust cleared out and it showed something to everybody. Tetsuya's right hand was on her arm.

His left hand on her… breast.

"Ah- Ahahahahahahahahahahaha…" IF began to scream.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

…

…

…

…

…

*SLAP!*

…Tetsuya Yuugita was sent flying as the sun shone on him and his twirling through the air. As if in slow motion, Tetsuya swore he saw a bright light not from the sun but from the heavens for some reason before he lost conscious. Afterwards, he woke up a few minutes later and discovered the rest of the girls defeated the monster due to IF, the MVP, being in rage mode.

While glad everybody was fine, he could definitely feel IF's animosity from the deadly aura she was emitting.

"Yeeeeeeah! And that's that!" Red yelled out loudly with her arms in the air and doing some victory dances with Akako and Aoko.

"It didn't take much time at all, did it? Let's get back to that town." Nepgear said. She gave a worried glance to Tetsuya as Compa applied medicine to the cheek that IF slapped at.

"Okey-dokey. Here you go, Tet-Tet. Huh…?" Compa looked over to the side. Tetsuya noticed and asked, "What's wrong Compa?"

Compa pointed towards the object that was close to them. "Wait a minute, I see something over here…" They looked at it. It turned out to be a big black rat that looked like it could walk with two legs.

"Chu…" It made.

IF looked at the rat in disgust and tried to drag Compa away from it. "Yuck, that's one oversized rat. C'mon Compa, just leave it there." But to no avail, Compa wouldn't budge as she let go of IF's hand and went to the rat.

"No way! The poor baby looks hurt… Just hang on, Mouse-san. Let Nurse Compa patch you up."

'P-Poor baby…?' Tetsuya thought as he looked blankly, though a bit weirded out, at the mouse Compa was patching up.

"Ch-Chu…?" It gave a louder response. Compa looked more closely at the rat to the point that she was in front of his chubby face.

"How do you feel, Mouse-san?"

"Ah!" The rat blushed and looked surprised.

"What's wrong?" Compa questioned towards the animal. It twiddled its fingers for a bit before asking a weird question.

"Chu! Er, um… C-Can I get your name…?"

"Of course! I'm Compa. It's nice to meet you, Mouse-san."

"Compa-chan… Compa-chan, huh…? Mmmmm, chu!"

"Oh! Where are you going?" Compa raised a hand to the rat but he had already run off.

'…Seems similar to someone…?' Tetsuya thought as questions floated in his mind.

"That mouse was…talking, right? I'm not hallucinating, am I…?" Nepgear said in shock. Tetsuya just put a hand on her shoulder while Arisa, Akako, and Aoko just nodded their heads.

"Yeah. A monster, or something else? Oh well, whatever. Compa, you ready now? Let's go."

"Aw, Mouse-san…" She was dragged away by IF.

"Sh-Sh-She's so adorable! An angel! My adorable angel, Compa-chan!" The mouse yelled out loud, with hearts in his eyes and more floating around him.

But that saying suddenly got Tetsuya a chill down his spine and he looked around to see nothing. He thought at first that he was getting a bit cold but what his mind was currently processing now is:

"…I feel a little bad for some reason…" Unknown to Tetsuya, a blue aura surrounded him but it disappeared after a few seconds. The group noticed it, especially Nepgear and Compa.

…

 **-Lastation-**

"Hey again, Gramps! We pummeled that monster you wanted us to defeat." Red yelled towards the 'old' young soldier.

"G-Gramps!? C'mon, I know this is an anime-inspired world, but I'm only in my twenties…" The soldier exclaimed.

"Ehh, nobody cares. Besides, boys are really gross. C'mon, out with the info already!"

'…Then, what about me…?' Tetsuya thought while putting a hand on the cheek that IF slapped earlier.

The soldier regained his posture and said, "O-Oh, um, all right… Hematite, was it? I saw some when I wandered into Septent Resort. I believe those pesky Tae Kwon Cats enjoy collecting gems like that one."

"Septent Resort, Right? Okay, thanks so much!" Nepgear bowed towards the soldier and they quickly headed off but Tetsuya couldn't help but wonder how a common soldier would know about the Hematite. He erased the thought and focused back on their objective as he placed a chocolate Pocky stick between his lips.

"….Pocky sure is the best thing to distract you with huh?" He placed another one between his lips next to the other stick.

But he knew he couldn't erase the image of him accidently groping one of IF's breasts as she still glared at him while he sweat-dropped. And Nepgear kept looking at him.

…

 **-Septent Resort-**

Septent Resort looked similar to Rebeat Resort because it was actually almost right next to but it had different monsters in the area. It had little monsters so the group easily avoided them. But then Red shouted out loud, "But how can we level up or learn skills!"

'…What the hell is she talking about?' Tetsuya thought as his face turned into his normal blank expression.

Ignoring Red, the group continued on and IF pointed to a certain group of monsters. "There. Those must be the cat monsters we were told about."

"If we can take the Hematite, we'll be able to get the information we need! Okay, let's go!" Nepgear brought out her beam saber while everybody else followed.

After the twins got their weapons out, Tetsuya got between them and said to them, "…Akako and Aoko, you guys rest a bit first. If the battle takes long, I'll switch out with you guys."

"Nii-san…"

The twins gave a smile to each other and moved out to the area where the monsters were.

"Hah! You don't need to tell us, Nii-chan!"

"…Just reminding…" He quietly said.

But before they could take action-

"Halt, cretin! Drop the Hematite, nice and slow…" A familiar female voice suddenly called out of nowhere.

Nepgear looked at the person who yelled. "Huh?"

It was none other than Uni. "Hmm? Ack! N-Nepgear!?" The lavender-haired girl showed happiness upon seeing her.

"Yay, it's Uni-chan! You were looking for Hematite, too?"

Uni blushed before putting up a façade and saying, "W-Well, yeah, but what do you think you're doing here!?"

But her façade faded quickly. "Erm, uh, I mean, what I meant was… I'm sor-… No, wait… I'm not mentally prepared for this…"

"I'm so happy that you're doing well. I mean, we left on such a sour note and all…" Nepgear wasn't really paying any attention to Uni's words.

"Did Kei-san ask you for help, too? Why not team up again and beat the mean cat monsters together?" She asked.

However, once again, she put another façade, though it looked fiercer. "D-Don't get ahead of yourself! I…I have something to say to you, y'know…"

Uni then did a 'ahem!' and crossed her arms. "S-So, like, you listening? I'm only gonna say this once in your lifetime, so pay attention."

"Yippee! I'm so happy you're here! Now I know we'll get the Hematite without any trouble!"

…Again, Nepgear wasn't paying attention since she was really happy Uni was here.

"H-Hey, I thought I told you not to get ahead of youself! Grr…"

"…Uni." Tetsuya said as he placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Wah! T-T-Te-Tetsuya!" Uni blushed deeply and moved away from him.

"It's very surprising to see you here."

'… **You don't look surprised though…'** The Yuugita family thought as they looked at him.

"Yay! Tetsuya-kun and Uni-chan together!" As repeated again and again, Negear was not listening. The family thought she was probably an air head… like her sister and a certain pink-haired boy.

Uni began to lose it and yelled out loud pointing to them. "Ugh! Screw it! Y-You'll never get your precious Hematite and live to tell the tale, you two!"

"Huh? Why are you being a bully? Are you…still mad at me…?"

'Now she's listening!?' The whole Yuugita family looked at Nepgear in disbelief.

"Shut up, you dolt! I said you won't get it, so you won't get it! Never!"

"Y-You're being so mean today… Fine! You can't have it, either!"

"You guys are acting like kids right now…" Tetsuya calmly said as he put himself between them.

"Wait, what? You're mad at me now? Then, let's just find out who can get to it first, shall we!?" It looked like they weren't listening to Tetsuya.

IF put a hand on her head. "*Sigh* Retract the claws, girls. We have monsters patiently waiting for us, remember?"

"I'm so sorry about them, Scary Monster Horde-san. Can you wait a little longer?"

"Bleh." The monsters unenthusiastically said.

While distracted, the Underling appeared. "The hell…? Are the brats arguing? Hmm, in that case, this might just be the ideal chance… Hehehe…"

"I'll smash 'em both at once. Just gotta find some monsters to help me…and those will do nicely." She looked at the monsters waiting for the group to finish.

"Hey, so… Can I beat these things up yet?" Red said with a bored look.

"Let 'em be for now. We have to let this other cat fight resolve itself first." IF said while putting her hand down.

"Sorry again, Monsters-san… I brought a thermos of tea, so please allow me to pour us all a cup."

'When did she prepare that!?' The twins thought as they intertwined their hands and looked at Compa in shock. However, they didn't notice one thing.

"Grrr!"

"Go! Do the thing that you usually do!" The Underling yelled but the group couldn't hear as she was far away from them.

"Grr? Uh, Grrrrrah!" The cat monster began roaring in rage.

"Yikes! Wh-What's wrong? Was my tea too hot!?"

"I don't think cat monsters care about tea really…" Tetsuya said while still blocking the CPU Candidates.

"Enough with the jokes, Compa! And you, Nepgear, stop arguing and help us take care of this!"

Nepgear snapped out of it when she heard IF. "Huh? What the goodness!? The monsters are on a rampage! I'm on my way!"

"…Coming."

"Coming, IF-chan!" The mother and son went their way leaving Uni behind.

"Hey, wait! I didn't say we were done talking!" She stomped her feet.

There were three of them so IF, Red, and Compa took the left, Tetsuya, Nepgear, and Uni, who for some reason suddenly joined, took the right, and Arisa took the cat on the front. Akako and Aoko rested and drank Compa's tea, viewing the battle before them.

"Uni, I don't remember you joining the group. It must be hard for you to find friends or a group to work in, huh?" Tetsuya said to her.

"Huh!? That's not true… I-I just wanted to get the Hematite, that's all! Working with you bunch is easy after all…"

"Uh-huh…. Acting like that again… I bet that's one of your cute points Uni." He casually said as he rushed to the cat monster.

She blushed at his compliment. "Wh-What!?"

"…" Nepgear just looked at them in silence.

"Hey Nepgear!" Tetsuya yelled.

"…Wah!" She snapped out of it as she realized that Tetsuya had his hand on her cheeks. But then she started pinching it.

"Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow!" He let go.

"….Wh-What was that for, Tetsuya-kun?!" Nepgear yelled out, but in a cute manner.

"To get you concentrated and have a little… fun. We gotta focus on the enemy right now."

"Yeah, lovebirds! Concentrate first, flirting comes later!" Arisa yelled out swinging her sword.

"L-L-L-L-Lovebirds!?" Nepgear blushed deeply as Uni looked on in shock and jealousy.

"You shut up, old hag!" Tetsuya picked up a pebble and threw it at her head.

"Owie! I'm gonna give you more homework later if you dare throw another one, snotty brat!"

Tetsuya looked away with boredom. "Yeah, yeah whatever…" He then brought out his weapons.

The monster rushed to him and used its claws to try to slash at him. But Tetsuya countered it with one sword, holding down the small monster.

"Much easier than the dragon we fought!" He yelled holding back the monster. He then yelled, "Nepgear! Uni!"

"Alright!" Uni yelled, readying her assault rifle and begin shooting at the monster.

'I-I… can't be held back too!' Nepgear tightened her grip on her saber.

Arisa smirked, looking at the furious-looking cat monster, while holding her sword, which was a modern-looking katana. The difference was the handle didn't have the traditional handle but the handle for a modern knife.

"This going to be easy… be prepared!" She said, settling into a posture before the monster began dashing towards her. She avoided the swipes easily with her great reflexes, playing with it. It was like a kid trying to punch an expert martial artist.

"Alright, chance!" She jumped and brought her sword down with a downward swipe. By only one slice, the monster already disappeared.

" ***PSSSHHHHHH!"** The twins spurted out their tea as the sound of the slice Arisa made was heavy. Tea liquid was going down their chins and mouths.

"Woah… Arisa took it down…with just one hit!?" IF yelled in shock. Arisa gave a thumbs up to praise herself. Tetsuya slapped his hand on his head and sighed.

"Showoff…" Nepgear and Uni were teaming up while he was waiting for a chance to go in and attack.

"…Now!" He dashed in between the girls as they parted. The twins began cheering.

"Go, go, Nii-san!"

"Go, go!" Using only one of his twin swords, he slashed the monster and it disappeared. The trio high- fived each other.

At the same time, IF's group also finished, with Red landing the final blow.

The Underling look shocked. "I guess some sad fodder mobs aren't enough. Whatever, I guess I'll go easy on 'em today…" And she sneaked off once again.

IF picked up the Hematite. "Great. We have Hematite now, too. Have you two kids calmed down yet?"

"Yes… I'm sorry about that…" Nepgear bowed and apologized.

"…" Uni remained quiet.

Compa examined everybody to see if there were okay. "Then everyone is happy and healthy! Let's go back to Kei-san, and…"

Finally, Uni said out loud. "Wait."

"Uni-chan?"

All of a sudden, Uni transformed. After the pillar of light disappeared, Uni now had white curly pigtails, light green power eyes, a black combat suit, and a huge black rifle.

"Nepgear, let's have a duel. If I win, I want you to hand the Hematite over to me."

"Jeez, you two are still going…?" IF sighed.

"I need to defeat you fair and square, Nepgear." Uni proclaimed, pointing at her.

Nepgear looked unusually confident and said back to her, "I see. I accept your challenge."

"Is it really okay?" Tetsuya asked IF, but IF backed away a few centimeters from him while glaring at the same time.

'…Still is angry…'

Red waved her hand before she began cheering. "Let 'em be. It's a serious showdown between star-crossed wifeys! Do your best, my wifey goddess!"

"Thanks for understanding. Don't you dare go easy on me! I'll never forgive you if you do." Uni readied her giant rifle.

"I have no intention of holding back. I can't… I won't lose ever again!" Nepgear also transformed into her HDD form.

She held her gun blade before dashing towards Uni.

The group watched the CPU Candidates fight. Tetsuya came next to Arisa and whispered to her "…Why are you allowing this, Arisa?"

She laughed. "It looks fun to watch. I've always wanted to see CPUs fight for once you know!"

"…" Tetsuya remained quiet before Arisa gently elbowed him.

"Hey, hey! Would ya accept if you were in this situation?" He didn't look at her as he he continued to watch the fight. The answer he would probably give is-

"Yes, right?" Still, he did not look at her but he answered her question.

"…I don't care."

"You're such a pushover."

"Shut up." He glared at Arisa, which took his attention away from the fight.

"Ouch… That hurts." She said in mock sadness. He sighed and looked back. It looked like Uni was about to win until Nepgear at the last minute used her special move.

" **Mirage Dance!** " Already, she was in front of Uni and started slashing at her. Uni slightly panicked and Nepgear let out her final slash, a slash the naked eye couldn't see. The Lastation CPU Candidate fell and transformed back to her human form.

"I lost… I'm still too weak…" She sadly whispered. Tetsuya looked at her whilst everybody went to Nepgear.

Nepgear transformed back to her human form as well. "I win."

"H-Hmph. I let you win, of course. But I'm only gonna do that once, you get me!?" Uni ran away from the group. Tetsuya sighed at her obvious façade and went to Nepgear.

"Is this really what you wanted to do, Gear-chan?" Compa put a hand on her shoulder.

"I…don't know. Uni-chan…" The Planeptune CPU Candidate looked at the direction Uni, though she was long gone.

Though she wasn't visible, Uni was still in Septent Resort. She began to cry.

"She's strong, even when she's all by herself… But she has so many friends to help her, too…"

She looked down at her hands. "And what do I have? Just look at me, I'm…I'm…"

…

 **-Lastation Basilicom-**

After that, the group went back to Lastation, going to the country's Basilicom. Arisa gives Kei the Hematite.

"We meet again. It seems as though you even procured the materials that I requested." Kei said.

"Big Brother is watching us, huh?" IF said sarcastically to Kei. It looked like she was talking about the guard who told them where the Hematite was at.

"Kei-san, could you tell us where to find the Mascot now? It's been so long-we really need to hurry…" Nepgear begged.

"If it's been so long, what's a few more moments? It probably won't change the situation tremendously." Kei said before she switched topics:

"First, I'd like to hear about what happened three years ago in the Gamindustri Graveyard."

"Oh… Right…"

…

 **-Few minutes of talking-**

After Nepgear finished talking, Kei let out a breath of relief. "I see. Noire is still alive. That's a weight off my shoulders."

"If you were that worried, why couldn't you have been a tad more cooperative," IF sarcastically said once more. Kei merely shook her head.

"You have your priorities and I have mine when it comes to saving our CPU. But for my plans to come to fruition, I needed the materials that you so kindly obtained for me."

"It's time to fulfill my end of the deal. Here. I wrote down the last known whereabouts of the Mascot." She gave a piece of paper to IF.

"Thank you very much. We can finally…" Before Nepgear was about to finish her sentence, Kei interrupted to her.

"But let me warn you of something. Your request will more than likely be denied outright."

"What's that mean?" Red asked Kei.

"You'll find out soon enough. I wish you luck with your next negotiation." Kei said, though she sounded sarcastic.

…Or was she not?

"Sounds real sincere, coming from you." Arisa laughed at IF's sarcasm as they all left. Kei continued to look at the direction the group exited before putting a hand on her chin.

"Hoshikawa Arisa… I've heard about you… But that man." She recalled people saying rumors about some punk with spiky pink hair with flame-like bangs.

"…Was he just looking at me weird?"

…

 **-Septent Resort-**

"Man, back again at this place…" Arisa whined. They followed the directions listed on the paper as they scouted out the place.

"Oh, Mascot-san… Come out, come out, wherever you are…" Compa said, going all over the place.

"We were given legit directions…The Mascot should be around here. I doubt the Oracle would lie, but…"

"Oh, everyone, look! I found an area that resembles where we found Planeptune's Mascot!"Nepgear pointed to the aforementioned area.

Everybody ran to it and looked at the blue orb.

"There! I think that's the Mascot. Excuse me, Lastation's…Mascot…?" Nepgear asked, getting a closer look at it.

"Hmm? Planeptune's CPU…? No… The CPU Candidate…" A voice came out of nowhere, but it was easy to tell that it was coming from the orb.

"This Mascot is wide awake." Compa sayed whilst also looking at it closely.

"Must mean that the Shares situation is a lot worse here in Lastation than it was back in Planeptune." IF claimed and Arisa nodded.

"Um, so basically… We'd like you to come with us!" Nepgear immediately said and bowed toward the orb.

"How sudden. Do you truly believe that I would follow you without first confirming your intentions?"

Nepgear began to explain. "The CPUs are all held captive in the Gamindustri Graveyard, and we need your help to save them all!"

"I see. I sensed unusual fluctuations, but hearing that all the CPUs are being captive is a shock…If true, that only strengthens my argument to not accompany you."

"Aw, lame. Why?" Red pouted.

"My sole purpose is to protect this nation during the CPU's absence. Leaving now would cause the nation to lose any and all divine protection yet remaining. This is unallowable. It is, after all, part of the pact we Mascots made with the True Goddess."

"So you're saying its fine to let the CPUs be held captive." IF glared at Mascot.

But the Lastation Mascot retracted what she said. "As I said, my purpose is merely to act as the CPU's proxy in her absence. Not instigate a rescue attempt."

"But…" Nepgear tried to say something convincing but she couldn't think of anything.

"…" Tetsuya was trying to say something as well but he couldn't think of anything at all. After all, he still didn't know much about Gamindustri.

…

The group wasn't alone. It wasn't the monsters. And this time it wasn't the underling who got in their way. It was the other one, a mouse; the same mouse Compa saw and saved. "Hmm… Where is she? This is the only place I haven't looked around in, chu…" The mouse wandered around the area while still holding the disc he always held on his paw.

"*Sigh* Oh, my lovely Compa… We've been apart since that day… Why did I run? Damn my shyness, chu!" He squeaked loudly in shame…

But then, he saw Compa and said, "Huh? Oh, great. I miss her so much that I'm starting to hallucinate. My sweet angel Compa, chu…" However, he got a closer look and saw that Compa really was there.

"Or, wait. That's no hallucination! That's Compa! My lovely angel, chu!" He began running towards her and the group. The voice caused Compa to look up.

"Huh? Oooh, it's Mouse-san!"

"You…remember me? That makes me so happy, chu!" For some reason, the family noticed the rat had hearts in his eyes.

…Yes, hearts in his eyeballs.

"Not now. We're in the middle of something here." IF tries to shoo him off but to no avail as he said, "You shut up, chu! There's nothing more important in this world than Compa!" But it then noticed the Lastation Mascot and pointed to it.

"Whoooooooa! I-I-Is that the Mascot!?"

"Mouse-san, you know about the mascots?" Compa asked.

"I'm so lucky, stumbling on both my angelic Compa and the Mascot!"

"I have a great idea, Compa. Let's beat the crap out of that Mascot together, chu!"

"Huh? Beat it up…? Why would you say that?" Compa said in shock, putting both hands on her mouth.

"Hey, rat… are you…?" IF looked in shock as she knew what affiliation he was in. Yes, it was quite noticeable that he was in ASIC.

"If we smash the Mascot, we'll get a massive reward, chu! And if you help, my dear Compa, I'll help you join ASIC as a special VIP member!"

"Oh, I see! This little mousey is more like a weasel!" Red pointed at him.

Compa puts her hands on her hips and yelled at him. "Don't do something mean like that to the Mascot! If you do, then all of Gamindustri will…!"

The mouse interrupted and said out loud, "Exactly! Gamindustri will be one step closer to being under total domination through ASIC, chu! With no CPUs and nobody left to believe in 'em, Gamindustri will be completely under our control!"

The rat 'ahem!' and said to Compa, "To summarize, my sweet angel Compa, please join us before…"

However, Compa retorted. "Bad Mouse-san!"

"C-Compa-chan…?" The rat looked in shock to Compa.

"I've been traveling with my bestest friends to help save the CPUs, so… Th-That makes us enemies!" She exclaimed to the rat.

"Dun-dun-DUNNN! Enemies… S-So, are you telling me that you don't like me that way?" The rat despaired as the figurative glass broke.

"That's right! I really hate bad people, and bad monsters, and anyone who makes Gamindustri a bad place!"

"H-H-Hate!? You hate me!? Boo-hoo-hoo-chu!"

Red laughed and pointed again. "Lookit! It's a spinning like a top!"

"No, no, no, no! My tender heart is shattering to pieces, chu… All my love will go to my job, then…"

"That said, I'm gonna get rid of you all in the name of ASIC, chu!" The rat yelled out loud. Then, a Fenrir suddenly appeared.

"So much for that delusional drama. Let's take out the trash, Nepgear."

"Huh? What the goodness!? When did an enemy appear?" Nepgear looked at the monster with wide eyes.

"Man, you really get tunnel vision when you're focused on something. C'mon, it's about to charge!" IF complained as everybody charged.

"Chuuuuuuuu!"

...

 **-2 minutes of battle-**

Arisa easily defeated the rat by bonking the rat with the pommel of her katana. The real battle started with the Fenrir. Akako and Aoko switched with Tetsuya.

But all of a sudden, Arisa yelled out. "Hey! This kinda reminds of the time we teleported that Fenrir!"

"Yeah, that sure was a close one…"

"Mmh…. Ah." Aoko realized something as she looked at her brother. Tetsuya's face turned blank, listening to their conversation.

"….What…?" He said, in a 'calm' voice.

"… **.Uh-oh…"** The females in the family said. The only male stood up and started yelling while pointing to them.

"What the hell does that mean! Doesn't that mean that you guys really followed us everywhere!?"

He ran to Arisa and shouted in front of her. "I was wondering why that big wolf suddenly disappeared! It was you guys all along, huh!?"

Arisa put out both hands in defense. "Ahaha… There was totally a good reason why Tetsuya….. ahahahah…" As they argued, the Fenrir became impatient and rushed in to attack both of them.

"WRRAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGHHH!"

"STAY OUT OF THIS, YOU DAMN WOLF!" They both yelled, Tetsuya getting his weapon out. They both slashed the wolf with tremendous strength, causing it to recoil in pain.

"You suddenly just remembered this and you didn't even tell us!"

"Well, I'm sorry if I forgot!"

"Maybe your age is catching u-"

*Crack*

Instantly, before anyone knew it, Arisa began twisting Tetsuya's arm. "Ow ow ow ow ow ow!"

"…What ya say, you goddamn brat!" She began twisting even further, making it more painful.

"Ow ow ow ow ow! Uncle! Uncle! Uncle, WOMAN!"

"…Um, should we wait or stop them…?" Nepgear looked at the twins.

They both say together: **"Let's wait; I'm pretty sure their fight can beat a Fenrir unless it comes to us."**

As expected, the strong Fenrir was beaten by a quarrel… just adding 5 minutes of beating it and 5 more minutes of fighting finally caused an angry IF to separate them.

"Oof… I lose the game of love, I fail at my job… This is the worst day of my life, chu!" The rat fainted.

"So… that was one of the evils plaguing Gamindustri?" The Lastation Mascot asked.

"Yeah. And now that stupid rat knows exactly where you are." IF said.

"So it would seem. Perhaps it would be wise of me to go into hiding for the time being." The Mascot reasoned out.

"If that's what you're planning, why not come along with us? We can keep you safe and hidden." Nepgear tried to beg again.

But once again, it restated, "I have already said such a request cannot be granted."

"Yeesh, you're really stubborn. The whole world's like this now, but only your nation matters?" Red annoyingly said to the Mascot.

"…" It remained quiet and thought about what the rat said.

'With no CPUs and nobody left to believe in 'em, Gamindustri will be completely under our control!'

"So…no matter how hard one tries, some things simply cannot be protected alone… CPU Candidate…"

"Yes? Have you decided to join us?" Nepgear said.

"I… cannot abandon this nation. I cannot break the pact made with the True Goddess…"

"Then…there's nothing else we can say to convince you…?" She asked.

"What I can do is offer my power, while my physical self remains here. Accept a portion of my power…"

"Huh? Goodness…!" Energy suddenly hit Nepgear as she felt refreshed.

"Though I can offer little, I ask that you help the CPUs and all of Gamindustri…"

"Thank you so very much! We'll make sure to save everyone!" She bowed.

However-

"…Something's weird about that boy… I sense….-

"…Immense amount of Share Energy… coming from him."

…

 **-Lastation-**

"Okay, we've wrapped up pretty much all our business in Lastation, but…"

"We couldn't get the CPU Candidate to help us, huh? What'll we do?"

"It really is a shame… It'd have been so sick if I had two cute CPU wifeys…" Red pouted.

"Uni-chan…" Nepgear said in a worried tone. She must have been worried that she and Uni hadn't made up yet.

"No point in sitting around, moping. Let's head to the Basilicom and give our report." IF stated.

…

 **-Basilicom-**

They entered and bumped into Kei Jinguji, who was waiting for them. She clapped her hands and said,

"Well done. I'm surprised to hear that such a stubborn Mascot agreed to lend you some power."

"We're the ones who came to deliver the report. It'd be really awesome if you wouldn't do it for us." IF responded to the Oracle.

"Our next step is to visit Lowee, but before that, could we meet with Uni one more time?" Nepgear asked. Tetsuya nodded.

"Please."

"Hmm? That's really up to her, since she dramatically dove under my desk the moment you all arrived." Kei pointed to the desk next to Tetsuya.

Kei was right after Uni suddenly popped out of her hiding place. "Hey! Don't be a stool pigeon!"

"Oh, hi, Uni-chan! I'm so glad I got to see you."

"Uh, h-hi, Nepgear…Tetsuya." Uni rubbed her head before blushing.

"I know I asked already, but… Uni-chan, won't you come with us and help save our sisters?"

"No! At least…not yet."

"I see…"

'If I went with them right now, I'd only be a burden…' She thought.

But something unexpected happened from Nepgear. "*Sniffle* *Snort*"

Uni was shocked and shouted towards her. "Wh-What!? Why are you crying!?"

Nepgear tried to wipe the tears but they keep coming out. "B-Because, we became good friends, but all we do is fight…and now, we…we'll never be BFFs, and now…"

"Our spat has nothing to do with it. Hang on! You're talking like we'll never see each other again!"

"Huh? So…you wanna hang out later?"

"Tch. W-Well, maybe when I feel like it, maybe I'll…you know, think about it a little. Maybe."

"Uni, you're acting like a Tsundere again." Tetsuya rubbed his head in annoyance, receving an annoyed stare from Uni who started yelling at him while blushing some more: "Ts-T-Tsundere!? Y-Y-You bastarrrrrr….dddd!" She could see the hidden smirk Tetsuya had which was covered by his blank expression and smile.

Nepgear wasn't listening to their conversation and held Uni's hands. "Really? For really reals!? It's a promise, okay!?"

"I…I said if I feel like it, and not…ugh! Fine, fine. I promise, okay?"

"Quite the character, aren't we? I never thought I'd see the day when Uni could look so…happy." Kei smiled and closed her eyes.

Uni looked at Kei in anger and yelled, "Hey! Wipe that stupid smirk off your face right now!"

"Gear-chan, we should get going." Compa said.

"Although necessary, I do apologize for keeping you here for so long. Best of luck on your travels." Kei uttered to the group.

IF rubbed her head and sighed. "Stop it. You creep me out when you say anything remotely selfless."

"I'm wishing you luck because of the projected difficulties I foresee with Lowee's CPU Candidates."

'….Candidates…..?' Tetsuya had thought.

"Huh? Plural?" Nepgear said his thought out loud.

Just as everybody was about to leave, Tetsuya went to Uni. "Uni."

"T-Tetsuya, aren't you leaving?!"

"I'm sorry." He gave a slight bow.

"Eh? W-Why…?"

"It's just that in that Christmas Event, I actually thought I was going to give you something since you appeared but then you disappeared… Why?"

"U-Um… That's because…. I had a stomachache!"

"Oh… Okay." He believed in her lie. Afterwards, he gave out a hand.

"Huh?" She questioned his action.

He claimed, "Hey, besides Nepgear, I'll be your friend."

"Wah! W-W-Wh-Who would want to be friends with a mean, monotone, stupid, pink-haired guy like you!"

"…That kinda hurt…"

"B-B-But…" She extended her hand and shook his hand.

"But for your sake, I'll be your friend! Don't get the wrong idea, okay, you idiot…"

"Mh. Thanks. By the way….. Don't be a Tsundere okay." He cheerfully said in a monotone voice before he quickly dashed away from getting hit.

Uni blushed even more and yelled out with her hands in the air. "Wh- You, you baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaasssssssssssssstttttttttttttttttttaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrdddddddddddd!"

Kei merely laughed at the two, "Uni seems to really like this man… I remember he thanked me but…"

 **-Flashback-**

Kei Jinguji is mistaken sometimes for a guy due to her appearance but in actuality she's a girl.

And this was what Tetsuya Yuugita said to her in secret: **"Hey Kei-san, are you a guy?"**

 **-Flashback ended-**

She actually felt angry for some reason even though she was used to it, but perhaps it was because he was a guy as well.

"….An interesting boy indeed…"

"Hoshikawa Arisa got an interesting boy… but I do remember her, one time, taking down a building because a bomb was there…. It was a lot of damage, Hoshikawa Arisa."

She didn't seem very happy in the last part of her words.

* * *

Tetsuya Yuugita Event:

 **-At the morning of the hotel the group were in-**

Arisa: Hey, Nepgear, IF, and Compa, can you guys wake up Tetsuya. I think he's still sleeping.

Nepgear, IF, and Compa: Okay!

-Tetsuya's room-

Compa: Wow... he looks deep asleep...

IF: I guess he had a nice sleep... alright time to get the blanket off him!

*Flip*

-Back to Arisa, Akako, Aoko, and Red-

Red: What's taking them so long...?

Aoko: Hey do you hear a scream?

Akako: I think it's coming... from outside?

-Outside the girl's room-

Nepgear, Compa, and IF: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Arisa: Woah! W-What happen you three!?

Nepgear: T-T-T-Te-Tet-T-Tetsuya-k-kun...

Compa: Is...

IF: FRICKINNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN NNNNNNNNNNNNAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD!

Arisa: ...Oh... that's normal sorry girls, I totally forgot sometimes he fully undresses himself because he thinks it's too hot. Sorry!

Nepgear: ...

IF: ...

Compa: ...

Akako: They looked traumatized.

Aoko: You guys didn't see... that part right...?

Nepgear, Compa, and IF shook their head.

Arisa: Whew... like I said sorry! It's a big and bad habit. I'll go wake him up okay?

Akako/Aoko: They still look bad...

Red: ...WOAH...

* * *

 **AN: Phew... my longest chapter right now so far... 25 pages...**

 **Arisa: Well, at least hardwork paid off...**

 **Akako: And besides, it's time for the anniversary party!**

 **Everybody including AN: YEEEAAAAAHHHH!**

 **AN: Sorry guys, the last part here is going to be short so I'm going be with the party for a bit. But thank you so much for reading my very first fanfic! I'll be sure to improve and don't get flamed too much...**

 **Tetsuya: By the way, where's the Editor...?**

 **AN: Oh, she's at her computer as usual.**

 **Arisa: That's just like her...**

 **AN: Yeah, if she doesn't get too much sunshine! She'll probably be fa-**

 **-Pie throw-**

 **AN: WAUGH!**

 **Aoko: She could hear us...**

 **Arisa: Yeah but let's get the Anniversary party started!**

 **Everbody: Yeah! Keep reading this fanfic everybody!**

 **(Everybody eats and drinks.)**


	10. Lowee Part 1: Something is Different?

**Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth: Generation of True Gods**

 **Chapter 7: Lowee Part 1: Something is Different?**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Hyperdimension Neptunia or it's characters. The story and OCs are mine.**

 **AN: Hey everybody, it's been a while hasn't it?**

 **Tetsuya: No, it hasn't. It's been a frickin' year, Author!**

 **Aoko: Yeah!**

 **Akako: Have you been neglecting us!**

 **Arisa: Oh my, oh my, Author...**

 **AN: N-No, I have not! I had writer's block and been thinking about future ideas too, you know!**

 **Everybody except AN: *SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE**

 **AN: Stop with the *STARE*! Alright, alright, let's get into the chapter! Get reading, viewers!**

* * *

 **-Lowee-**

After collecting the Lastation's Mascot's power, the group traveled onward to the snowy Lowee. And the very first thing they did in Lowee was enter (in Red's case, she jumped through) the gate leading into the place. The buildings were colorful and beautiful to look at. As expected, snow came down almost everywhere. At a far distance, they saw a huge, white building that looked similar to the Neptower. That was clearly the Basilicom.

Red ran and jumped to the entrance before raising her hands. "Here I am, Lowee! And I made it here first, so I win!" Everybody else followed Red.

Nepgear shivered but looked around and said, "Wow… It's so… cold, but the scenery really takes your breath away…" Her breaths turned into mist that quickly faded in seconds.

Arisa came next to Nepgear and said to her. "Yep, Lowee's the only nation to have not only snow but also the most beautiful sceneries of Gamindustri."

"Really?"

Arisa nodded. Nepgear then noticed something weird though, "But Arisa-san…"

"Yeah?"

Nepgear looked at her and said "Aren't you cold?" She gave Arisa a questioning stare.

"…" Arisa blinked and blinked and a few seconds later-

"It's so cold!" She shivered and hugged her arms. Her nostril had mucus going down from the left side.

Nepgear looked at her with widened eyes. "Eh!? You just noticed?"

Tetsuya came next to Arisa and sighed. "Yeesh, it's not _that_ cold, you guys are just a bunch of babies."

"S-Says the one… who's dressed more lightly than the rest of us!" Arisa yelled at the bored boy. He was merely wearing his usual outfit: a black shirt with an unbuttoned blue shirt worn above it, cargo pants, and a few accessories. He was not even cold at all; in fact he was warm, _very_ warm.

They continued to argue until Compa suggested something to the group. "Lowee is covered in snow all year. We should all buy some warm undies to keep the cold away!"

The idea was great but IF said to her. "Only if we have time to spare. We need to gather info, pronto."

"I agree. To the Guild, then?" Nepgear asked.

"No. Straight to the Basilicom. I haven't heard anything bad about the Oracle here, so we'll be fine." IF said and looked at Arisa.

"Arisa, you know where the Basilicom is at?"

"Yeah, been here a bunch of times, even met her, follow me everybody!"

"…Where the heck did your complaining go to all of a sudden?" Tetsuya sweat-dropped as he looked at her.

"…" A nearby 'bystander' gazed at the group as they followed Arisa. After a while, they followed behind the group while clutching at something in their pockets.

...

 **-Later-**

While following Arisa, Red pointed at a crowd.

"Lookit, ladies! Someone's making a real commotion. Let's check it out!" Red said as she ran to the group of people.

"Oh! What is it, what is it!"

"I want to look..." Akako and Aoko started jogging to the crowd. IF sighed.

"We don't have time to get sidetracked, so…huh? That's…" She saw someone familiar in the middle of the crowd.

"Step right up, folks! The fun and magical ASIC team is here to spread the good word!" The green hair, those sharp red eyes, and the mouse clothing made it obvious who the person is: a certain side- tracked villain.

"Join ASIC today and you'll get instant access to any and all games you want to play, for free!" The people ignored her; seeing that she dropped the happy facade and reverted to her true personality.

"*Sigh* Why the hell do I have to do the sales pitch grunt work? Passing out flyers and crap…"

She crumpled the papers and yelled out loud. "I wouldn't have gotten stuck doing this if it weren't for those stupid brats!"

Calmly and gently, the Nurse tapped the Underling's shoulder. "Excuse me, are we the brats you're talking about?"

She smirked and threw a hand. "Yeah, the dumb blonde chick, the transforming baby, the snob, and the 'wifey' muscle head. Also, the pink head guy, the old lady, and the bratty duo."

IF still had a smile (albeit scary) on her face as she said, "Snob, huh? I didn't know that having proper manners came across that way."

"*Sigh* Transforming baby…? Do I really look that little?"

"Wifey muscle head? Don't be hatin' just because you're not on my hit list!" Red pouted.

"…Pink head guy…" A vein bulged out on his hand.

"Just because we're twins doesn't mean we're brats!"

"Yeah!"

"…Old hag huh…" A tick mark emerged on Arisa's forehead as she smiled.

"Uh-huh…" Finally, she realized something and turned around, then immediately backed off a distance.

"H-Hey, it's you all! Oh, what the hell!? When'd you get here!? How'd you find me!?"

"We weren't looking for you, but this commotion makes you stand out. And now we can't let you get away." IF said, holding anger in her calm, sweet voice.

"You've been a naughty girl, huh? I'm gonna have to punish you!" Apparently, Red wasn't offended at all and said childish things to the Underling who backed out.

She panicked, knowing she was going to fight eight people. "Dammit, this could be real bad…" She looked to the side and yelled. "Hey, you! Stray kid!" She ran to the child.

It was a young girl who looked like she was in elementary school. Overall, she had a cute outfit of light blue, white, and gray colors.

"Huh?" She looked to the side but it was too late as the Underling grabbed hold of her; she shrieked at the touch.

"Don't move, you're my ticket outta this mess. Heh, you all better not try anything, or the kid gets it!" She pointed her weapon to them as they walked slowly away from them.

IF clicked her tongue in disgust at her. "Back to basics, huh? How cliché."

"Let her go! She has nothing to do with any of this!" Nepgear stepped in.

The Underling retaliated by yelling at them. "Shaddap! ASIC is all about playing dirty, y'know? Now, if you'll excuse me…" She continued walking slowly till she could find the right timing to escape.

"*Sob, sob* Help me, Ram…!" The girl cried out as she got pulled away by the Underling.

Compa shivered. "Wh-What should we do!? Miss Underling just kidnapped a little girl…"

"How dare she lay her hands on such an adorable tyke! Is she planning a shotgun ceremony!? Not on my watch!" Red yelled out loud which everybody sweat-dropped at her words.

"Yeah, let's go after her!" Arisa yelled as everybody nodded and ran after her.

However, while everybody began to chase her, Tetsuya caught a familiar glimpse of pink hair bouncing through and going the opposite way of the group.

"I-Is that…!?" He looked to where the girls were at, still concentrating on the Underling and the hostage.

"...!" He hesitated but he decided to follow his desire to chase the pink-haired person, thinking that they would be fine with Arisa and IF.

"That person… could it be?" He muttered while he ran to the direction the pink-haired person went to. The bystander followed him, quietly following his shadow.

As everybody disappeared from the scene that was caused on the casual, energetic Lowee street, a girl identical to the hostage appeared and said out loud with pose, looking for someone.

She pouted. "Rom? Hey, Rom? Jeez, where'd you go…? I said to stay right here…" Then, a pillar of light appeared from where she was standing and a whole new different girl appeared and flew off to the sky going in the direction of the group.

The girl, for some reason, had almost the exact appearance of the same girl who had been kidnapped by the evil Underling. The only difference was the color light blue was replaced with pink that had the color of Tetsuya's natural hair color and her normal shiny brown hair was way longer than the light blue-colored clothes girl.

…

The group could see the Underling cutting corners when they would see her and kept chasing her while ignoring the other things around which was the reason they forgot about the only male member of the group. The area they were in wasn't quite big so they could still see the Underling, so they couldn't take the time to stop.

Thinking she lost them, the Underling stopped at a secluded area.

"*Pant, pant* Okay… I should be safe here…"

"*Sob, sob* *Sniffle*" The girl still cried in the Underling's grasp. Annoyed, she tried to shut her up.

"Ugh, shut up! Quit your crying! Dammit, I need to ditch this deadweight kid…"

"Halt!" The Underling gasped, hearing Red's voice from far away.

"Oh, come on! Already!?"

"Let the kid go and you can walk away from this unharmed."

"You nuts? This kid's my ticket outta here! Or are you gonna fight me when I got a tiny human shield?"

"Um, well…"

"So what was our plan again?"

"I don't think we thought very hard about this…"

"…"

"…"

"…"

"..."

"..."

"..."

Yes, everybody including the tactician IF had painfully stayed quiet. The only one who broke the silence was the crying voice of the kid.

"*Sob, sob* P-Please help me…"

She arrogantly laughed at their stupidity and pointed her baton at them. "Hahahahaha! You're all idiots! I mean, really? You didn't even have a plan? Give me a break!"

"As for me… I think I packed one… Yeah. Okay, come on out!" She grabbed a ball and threw it up the air which popped out a Sea Hunter. "That's your opponent for today. Just remember which of us has the upper hand this time! Hahaha!"

Nepgear stood next to IF and asked, "What the goodness should we do!? This looks bad, doesn't it…?"

"Yeah. Man, how sloppy of me to run off without a plan…" IF face palmed herself.

"Yeah, I was rushed…" Arisa rubbed her cheeks.

"We can't fight Miss Underling as long as she has Miss Hostage… Should we just run away?"

Red stood straight and shouted. "No! We'd never be able to save wifey candidate number three by running away!"

She continued to laugh loudly, if barbarically. "This situation is such a joke! I'll be the one you hear laughing as the life fades from your bodies!"

Of course the situation was broken by a shriek.

A person yelled from the sky. "Let Rom go, NOW!"

"Huh? From above?" She blankly said before looking up; a 'person' flew towards them like a missile ready to explode on the target.

The target: **The Underling and the Sea Hunter**

The unknown assailant, still in the air, used her weapon to make a slam on the ground. She propelled herself and struck the ground with great force.

"Blaaaaaargh!" The Underling let go of the hostage and the individual 'floated' towards the hostage.

She placed a hand on the girl's shoulder. "Rom! Are you okay!?"

Rom looked at the weird looking girl and cried even more.

"Ram! *Sob, sob* Raaaam!" She hugged her tightly.

The Underling tried to get up but to no avail; she looked shocked at them. "No freaking way! Another CPU!?"

Hearing the Underling's voice, Ram abruptly let go of their reunion hug and shouted to her. "How dare you make Rom play hostage and make her cry! You'll pay, dummy!" She tells the girl, Rom, "C'mon Rom, you activate HDD, too. Let's beat this big jerk all the way to last week!"

Rom quickly wiped her tears and nodded. "Uh-huh…" She raised her arms near her chest and breathed in and out before a pillar of light came in.

The vanishing light revealed a girl that _**now**_ was identical to the girl with pink hair.

The rescuer in time had pink hair that was a tiny bit darker than Tetsuya's with bright blue eyes with a long strand part of hair over her left shoulder. The hostage that went through a transformation, now had light blue hair with the same hairstyle and pink eyes.

Both had the same power suits with white and pink as the prominent colors with long white gloves that were pink at the end and with long stripes. The only skin that showed was their shoulders and a bit of their inner thighs. Finally, the one thing that defines the CPU's appearance: Their power-symbol pupils.

The two girls, the rescuer and the hostage, were in fact the CPU Candidates of Lowee.

"Woah, they really are twins!" Akako shouted in joy.

Aoko snuggled against her sister. "Yeah, like us!"

The Underling was trying to scrape her jaw off the floor. "Wh-What in the holy crap!? Not one, but two more CPUs!? This is getting so messed up!"

"Oh, score! More wifeys-to-be!" Red squealed in joy.

"So those must be the CPU Candidates of Lowee…" Nepgear said.

IF showed a confident smile and brought out her katars. "Nothing's holding us back now. Let's show these guys who's boss!"

Everybody nodded with Red saying "Yeah, more waifus!" as they brought out their weapons. Caught up in the moment, no one, except one person, noticed Tetsuya wasn't there.

"..." She brought out her future katana and got ready. "This is going to be quick."

…

 **-?-**

"*Huff!* *Huff!* *Huff!*" Tetsuya let out large puffs of air as he kept chasing the individual. When he spotted her, the girl's shadowed eyes gave a mischievous feeling as she skipped on the road, pushing the crowd away.

"...*HUFF!* Why is… *Ha!* she here…! What is she doing here!?" He yelled, running through an alleyway and seeing the girl's hair for a split second.

He resumed his chase. "To the left!" Reaching at the end of the road, he turned and saw another alleyway that looked like the exit.

"This has to be the end!" He shouted as he ran to the very end of the road. "Hey!"

He looked around and saw himself in a large empty area surrounded by buildings.

"What the- is this...?" He questioned until he heard the sound of footsteps approaching him.

"Yeah, I lured you in, asshole." The footsteps came in closer and a quiet, irritated voice reached Tetsuya's ears.

"..." He glared at the 'girl'. The voice and the footsteps did not sound like they belong to a girl at all. It was a man. He was carrying female clothes, a newsboy cap, and a long pink wig.

'...I can't believe I fell for such a trap… but I definitely-' His thought of train was blown away by the ambusher's next words.

He dropped the stuff to the ground and pointed at the pink-haired boy. "I pretended to be 'her'... so you do know Kohane-sama, you trash!"

His brow furrowed even further, making his expression a bit scary. "...I have nothing to say to you, asshole. What do you want?"

"What do I want? What do I want?" He repeated his line as his expression changed to a mocking one.

"You know what I want." He brought out a large two-handed sword; Tetsuya immediately grabbed the handles of his twin blades.

He shouted to Tetsuya as he readied himself. "I want you dead, Yuugita Tetsuya!"

The pink haired man cracked his neck before taking his weapons out. "You know my name. So give me your name, dipshit." Tetsuya's face returned to being stoic again, but his tone indicated displeasure.

He grinned, showing broad teeth as he said, "Sure, my name is Akai. Make sure you remember it as the person that'll send you to hell!" He dashed towards Tetsuya who looked at him.

Finally, he began dashing to him. "Sure, but I won't die. I'll probably remember this as meeting the most annoying sociopath stranger that I don't even know…"

Akai screamed as his and Tetsuya's swords collided. Tetsuya let out a grunt. The blades were shaking, trying to push the other person away for a strike. Neither could manage it and backed away quickly.

Akai clicked his tongue and Tetsuya remained cool.

The girl's battle was already starting, quickly almost ending at their part while the two men's battle had started.

'This might take longer than I thought.' Tetsuya thought as Akai once again ran to him with a murderous look in his eyes and more tempestuous yelling.

'He seriously is getting on my nerves now.'

 ***BAM***

Once more, the swords collided, Tetsuya using both his blades to block the great sword horizontally.

What he didn't realize was the slowly enlarging top and bottom fangs of his teeth as he opened his mouth to let out an animalistic snarl.

* * *

 **Arisa Hoshikawa Event:**

Arisa: Hey Tetsuya, wake up!

Tetsuya: Give me an hour... old hag... *snore*

Arisa:...I said WAKE UP, DAMMIT!

Tetsuya: OW! What the hell! I was having the best dream of my life!

Arisa: Oh, what was the dream!?

Tetsuya: Eating at a buffet for a week for free! And you ruined it, Arisa!

Arisa: Well, too bad! We gotta get to Lowee and put your clothes on!

Tetsuya:...Did you take my clothes, you perve-

Arisa: You should know this by now!

* * *

 **AN: Phew, now this chapter is done, now the next one...**

 **Tetsuya: I'm guessing it's going to be long... right?**

 **AN: Yep, between you and the guy mostly and to the girls!**

 **Tetsuya: Why would you make such a weirdo in this story... he's trying to kill me or I don't even know this guy.**

 **AN: Don't worry, you'll be fine... I guess?**

 **Tetsuya: Yeah, yeah whatever...**

 **Akai: I've found, Yuugita Tetsuya!**

 **AN and Tetsuya: What the hell!**

 **AN: Why is Akai here!?**

 **Tetsuya: I should be asking you that!**

 **AN: The guards should've stopped him.**

 **Akai: I've sliced all the guards up to bits! Now fight me, Yuu-**

 ***Door slam***

 **Arisa: Oh, there you guys are.**

 **AN: Arisa! Akako and Aoko?**

 **Arisa: Getting some candy from the store inside the theater.**

 **Tetsuya: Hey, Author? Should we end it here?**

 **AN: I guess. I'm still very sorry, everybody, I was thinking about ideas and I did have writer's block at the time. I hope to make it up in the next chapter!**

 **Tetsuya: Don't make them give you pity 'kay?**

 **AN: Well you're kind. Well, I'll see you guys in the next chapter!**

 **Tetsuya: What should we do with the moron, slammed in the door?**

 **AN: Leave him and lock it up.**

 **Tetsuya: Got it.**


End file.
